Amazon, AirBNB, Uber, Lyft, Facebook, Twitter, and Instragram. What do all these businesses have in common? They are all at the top of the platform economy. These businesses are all platforms where they can facilitate services or products for a huge population of consumers. AirBNB does not own any hotels or resorts, but now they have become one of the biggest hospitality companies in the world because they set up a platform where they could connect rooms in homes or condos or rental properties with consumers that wanted to use short term rentals to stay in a location for a limited amount of time.
Facebook was one of the first platforms where through their website they allowed people to connect and communicate with their friends and families and high school friends and then they monetized the platform through selling advertising on it. They built a huge community of people and gave them a lot of tools and perks for free to show pictures and info about themselves so that more and more consumers would interact and connect through Facebook. The longer they were on the Facebook platform, the more likely they would be to click on an advertisement and Facebook could monetize their platform.
Recently I started using Rentler to manage one of my rental properties and Rentler has a pretty good platform to where they give tools for free and some they charge for, but they found a better way to help landlords and tenants connect and manage rents through their website and tools. If you design a better platform, then you can attract lots of people (consumers) and sell them products to increase your business and revenue.
The platform economy is real. The internet revolution started connecting people to businesses and the platform economy has capitalized on the internet and built platforms that give people perks and value and then they can capitalize on all these consumers coming back to their platform over and over again and eventually they can sell these consumers products and make profits for their platform.
If you have not read my article yet about “Bucket Income vs. Pipeline Income” then find it in the blog and read through that next. These platforms of Facebook, Amazon, AirBNB, Rentler, Uber, Twitter, Rentler, Expedia, and Hotels.com are the new pipelines of this technology age. Instead of bringing water to a village, these platforms are bringing people to the platforms where these companies make money off of the products or services they can sell them. They give them a platform with value and perks and then the consumers purchase through the platform.
Frankly, you’ve probably been participating in the platform economy as a consumer for years. The internet boom of the late 90s was all about the platforms that could be built on the internet and the companies that really were not making very much money yet but attracting a lot of people to their websites. These company’s stock prices soared in the late 90s and then crashed. The companies that survived and prospered were the ones that built a platform with enough value and perks to attract a lot of consumers and then eventually monetize on those consumers through advertising revenue or sales of products or services.
The real question is, how can you participate in the platform economy with your own platform? Do you need to spend millions to build an internet platform that can be the next big thing? Building platforms now is the same as it was in the past to build a pipeline. It will take a lot of hard work and effort. It will take strong motivation and being focused on the end goal. At SideBusinessFreedom.com we actually use existing platforms and show you a way to take advantage of companies like Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, and restaurants like Olive Garden, Benihana’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, to name a few and over 300 National Brand Retailers and Restaurants. Jump on our 25 minute introduction plan call and let’s discuss how you can take advantage of the platform economy and build a pipeline income that will last.
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