Well I admit it. I am old enough to remember the "Dot.Com boom" and the spectacular bust that followed. Like many of my colleagues, I rode that wave to the dizzying heights and had my share of spectacular falls on the downside as many of our investments came crashing down.
Likewise I took a punt at the lowest point of the market and started yet another business which I rode all the way through to the GFC and learnt some valuable lessons along the way.
Booms and busts go in cycles and we have seen recent IT based "land grabs" such as domain squatting and the rush to bring apps to the market in a hurry to ride the smartphone boom. Each bubble and bust has lessons we can learn from and gives us insight in to the next ones to emerge.
Which brings us to today and the trends that are rapidly emerging. Economic markets are a bit all over the place right now. Greek debt defaults combined with declining consumer demand, historically low interest rates and a general uneasiness in the market. But one phenomenon is emerging at every turn....the rise of the "Platform Boom".
The Platform Boom is all around us but you may not have given it a name yet. It is the rise of platform systems that are changing the way markets are operating. No longer do you need to be a player in a market to be able to participate in it. In fact it is the innovative thinkers that are using technology to turn markets upside down and change everything we know about them.
Think Uber, AirBNB and the countless websites and apps that are springing to life about as fast as you can imagine them. These are the high profile ones, but the possibilities to capture entire new markets are still boundless and many are happening behind the scenes within smaller industry circles. The Platform Boom is all about bringing new technology ecosystems to traditional markets to change the way we think about consumption of these goods and services.
This is NOT about "Apps" anymore.
As a Business Strategist and Tech Investor I really don't want to hear another pitch for "the next big app". That ship has sailed people and we are now playing a much bigger game. The next gold rush is Platforms. These will not be built in your garage in your spare time. They will require investment, focus, commitment and an intricate knowledge of the ecosystem that you are planning to play in. These are big land grabs for entire sectors and will leave many traditional players left shaking their heads wondering what happened to their business models. That's not to say that they will no longer exist, but they will be forced to re-think old models and chose to either play a new game or innovate further to change the game even more.
The exciting news for consumers is that this is all working in our favour. Better utilisation of resources, more access to what we want when we want it and greater visibility and transparency in to previously controlled and monopolised markets.
The Platform Boom is creating new playing fields for new entrants and entrepreneurs and lowering the barrier of entry for startups with new ideas.
And as with every boom comes cash. Smart investors are now seeking out the next platform gold mines, but head this warning. Great technology alone never wins these battles. More than anything the team must understand the industry problem intricately and be able to articulate this in a way that clearly shows how the technology will solve the industry problems both simply and elegantly. They must be able to innovate quickly and capture a broad audience in a short space of time. And finally they must have deep enough pockets to rapidly develop and deploy.
"Who is going to influence your market?"
New platforms need advocates and they will come from within the current ecosystem, either from the users or the suppliers. So ask yourself, are the industry influencers on your team or competing with you? A platform in an existing ecosystem will require the a shift in behaviours within the ecosystem. Without this you can have the best technology and idea in the world but will fail unless people want to use. it.
Where is the gold?
Well I have already stated that this is not about apps. In fact it is not even about the subscription service or user pays model. The gold will ultimately be in the data and Platforms are the path to the gold.
Platforms change behaviour and their use will require large scale adoption. With that comes masses of data about consumers, suppliers and behaviours. The gold is not in the app or the platform itself, it is in what you attract and how well that data can be used for your next evolution of the product or who is attracted to the data you create. Ultimately this is building a massive longer term asset.
Exciting times ahead but this is now a big game to be played. Those who truly invest in playing the big Platform game will be the winners, those stuck trying to just build an app will miss this boat.
