The term platform economy is particularly at home in the areas of digital marketplaces, digital transformation, and e-commerce and digital trade. It describes a business model in which digital platforms act as intermediaries between providers and demanders – thus bringing together buyers and sellers, service providers and users.
Unlike traditional companies, which often produce their own products or services, the platform economy creates a digital environment in which other businesses can be conducted. The platform itself usually makes money through brokerage fees, advertising, or additional services.
A clear example is Amazon: here, the platform operator (Amazon) provides the technology and ensures that retailers can present their products and customers can buy them. Amazon itself owns some of the goods, but many other retailers use the platform to sell their products. This creates a large digital marketplace that easily brings together supply and demand.
The platform economy allows business opportunities to grow, new business models to emerge, and processes to become significantly simpler for both businesses and customers. Many digital innovations of recent years are based precisely on this principle.
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