How platforms deliver value to their ecosystem

How do we deliver consistent experiences for ecosystem stakeholders through a single view of the ecosystem?

This article is part of the Digital Platform hub

Product organizations are customer-centric, platform organizations are ecosystem-centric.

Platform organizations need to ensure that they have a single view of the customer and of every ecosystem stakeholder across the organization. 

Platform users – both producers and consumers – should have a consistent experience across the platform. In order to achieve this, the platform owner must unify assets, touchpoints, and communications. A unified data layer is key to achieving all of these priorities.

Platform firms must build a holistic view of users across their journey with the platform. They should identify and track every interaction at every touchpoint with the ecosystem.

Incumbents pursuing a platform strategy have often started with disparate innovation efforts, before realizing that it is ineffective to serve the ecosystem without a single view of the user (and of every stakeholder in the ecosystem).

A single view of the user may involve implementation of some form of single sign-on. For instance, the Schibsted Media Group launched the SPiD (Schibsted Payment ID) as a single sign-on and payments system that allows the firm to track users across its many disparate touchpoints. Retailers like Walgreens, CVS, and Lowe’s often use a loyalty program as a lead-in to get users to sign up onto a single sign-on system, which they then further integrate with third-party partners. For instance, users can sign in to third-party fitness applications using their Walgreens ID to earn loyalty points for their activity on these applications.

A unified view may also be set up without the need for single sign-on. For example, Verizon tracks mobile customer behavior across all its phones to create a single ID, the PrecisionID, and provides brands and agencies with an analytics platform and ad network targeted to these mobile customers.

Beyond creating a single view of every ecosystem stakeholder, ecosystem centricity also involves incentivization choices, where some participation for some ecosystem participants may be subsidized because their participation is valued by other participants. Arguably, platforms like Google and Facebook subsidize consumer participation to attract advertisers. Similarly, many content platforms like YouTube and TikTok incentivize producer participation to enable content creation, which in turn attracts consumers. The review platform Yelp, for instance, gained traction in its first market in San Francisco attracting users interested in discussing local businesses and nightlife, by providing them special access to invite-only events in the local scene.