Platform Thinking: what’s beyond Uber? (Coursera)

Over the last two decades, platforms have transformed the way, we search for information (e.g., Google), buy goods (e.g., Amazon), consume news and media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) and travel and move around (e.g., Airbnb, Booking.com, Uber and TripAdvisor). This phenomenon is known as 'the power of platforms', defined as an innovative business model that relies on digital technologies to assemble people, knowledge and companies in an interactive ecosystem where value can be created, captured and shared.These platforms have a great ability to attract funds and grow rapidly, relying on external resources (e.g. private houses for Airbnb or private cars for Uber), with a significant impact on the market. These companies act as intermediaries, attempting to reduce frictions in the market and helping the supply and demand sides of a product or service to find each other. As such, existing companies may be inspired by these fast-growing companies to at least partially capture the opportunities underpinning the model. Most of them are digital companies mainly focusing on the service field; nevertheless, recent cases show how platforms are having an impact in many different industries with the spread of the sharing economy and implications in the brick and mortar industries.

What You Will Learn

• Understand the impact that platforms have in our daily life
• Identify the main typologies of platforms in the business world
• Assess the evolution of the concept of platforms over time in the management world
• Apply the main “platform thinking” logics to existing platforms to see their innovative power

Syllabus

Week 1 - Introduction to the course
Week 2 - Living the platform revolution
Week 3 - The history of platforms
Week 4 - Looking forward