Capítulo 1: Internet: ¿Dónde estamos ahora?

El libro comienza con una historia de alto nivel de Internet. En 1993, se lanzó el primer navegador web. Originalmente conocido como Mosaic, pasó a llamarse Netscape. Internet creció en popularidad a medida que las personas comenzaron a enviarse correos electrónicos, navegar por la red y crear sus propias páginas.

Surgieron muchas empresas para aprovechar la nueva tecnología. A finales de los 90, se ofrecía a la venta una amplia gama de bienes y servicios. Google apareció y mejoró toda la experiencia al facilitar que las personas encuentren las cosas que estaban buscando.

There were plenty of failures among these early companies. This isn’t uncommon with new technologies. Everyone jumps on the new bandwagon but not everyone completely understands the new dynamic.

The new millennium heralded the rise of a new type of web service. This is Web 2.0. It’s all about users; an important facet of Web 2.0 is the rise of social media websites. Instead of being the occasional source of entertainment or a place to check email, the internet has become integrated with people’s lives. People’s personal finance and social interactions, to name but two domains, have been transformed. Instead of using the internet occasionally, people essentially live their lives online. Our world has been transformed by the ability to communicate quickly to the entire world. Citizen journalists have been able to bring global awareness to a host of social and political issues. People can work together on projects regardless of where they might live.

The location for interacting with technology has shifted. Back in the day, folks mostly used sophisticated technology when they were at work. That’s all changed. Nowadays people are as likely to turn on a computer and hop on the internet at home as at work. In fact, the line between home and work is increasingly blurred as more people work from home. This has brought about the rise of the prosumer. Prosumers are platform users, actors who are both producers and consumers.

A freemium is something that’s given away for free in the hopes of creating a customer. Typically, a site will provide basic services for free and require some form of paid subscription for access to enhanced features. It’s a risky strategy. Companies might waste too many resources on free users who will never convert to subscribers.

La revolución de la tecnología de la información tiene su parte de externalidades negativas. Las industrias se han visto interrumpidas y muchas empresas se han visto obligadas a cerrar. Las empresas estadounidenses ya no disfrutan de ventajas locales y ahora deben competir con empresas de otros países que podrían tener mano de obra más barata o menos regulación. Ninguna empresa está a salvo de estas fuerzas cambiantes del mercado. La tecnología ha reducido las barreras de entrada, lo que facilita y abarata la puesta en marcha de nuevas empresas, lo que significa que muchas empresas ahora compiten entre sí en todo el mundo. Esto puede ser excelente para las nuevas empresas emergentes en Zambia, pero también significa la erosión de los negocios tradicionales. Todo se está reajustando, lo que es bueno para algunos, pero malo para otros.

The world is changing so fast that “planning” is no longer an effective strategy. By the time a plan comes to fruition, circumstances have likely changed so much as to make the plan obsolete. Nowadays all businesses operate under a huge cloud of uncertainty. And so, my friends, this is the world we live in. Privacy and security are big concerns, at least as long as such concepts continue to exist. We are always connected to the technology grid. Our lives and our businesses have changed dramatically in the space of a decade.

Capítulo 2: Plataformas: definiciones, historia y economía

The internet changed everything. We work online. We socialize online. We take care of errands; we entertain ourselves online. It’s not at all unusual for people to spend most of their time on the internet. It’s important that we have stability and security in all of these activities. Platforms can help us achieve this stability and security.

Una plataforma es un ecosistema que se escala fácilmente y abarca características, usuarios y socios. Las plataformas permiten que las personas se contacten e intercambien información. Facilitan mucho la colaboración con terceros. La plataforma es un modelo de negocio. Incluso las grandes empresas pueden ser plataformas. En un círculo benéfico (en oposición a vicioso), las plataformas generan efectos de red que hacen que las plataformas sean más populares, lo que genera más efectos de red. Las plataformas se construyen poco a poco. Cada componente de una plataforma se llama tabla. Las plataformas han existido desde siempre, pero las computadoras les dan un nuevo poder. Ahora están turboalimentados.

Monopolies don’t socially optimize resources. Monopolies create barriers to entry, effectively preventing meaningful competition. There’s the controversial notion of natural monopolies, when barriers to entry are so high that really only one company can succeed. AT&T is an example; back in the day they were pretty much the only phone company. They had a complete monopoly. Some people say this is just a natural result of market circumstances, so it’s cool. Others say the whole idea is in error.

Monopolies are the result of horizontal or vertical integration. Some of them have control of the production process, which is vertical integration. Some have control of the market, which is horizontal integration. All this talk of integration makes some people think that platforms are monopolies, but they are wrong. Platforms aren’t monopolies. There are many differences between platforms and monopolies.

Technology and globalization have evened the playing field, so companies can’t make “super-normal” profits because there’s so much competitive pressure. People will just go somewhere else if you charge too much.

Las plataformas tienen bajas barreras de entrada. Cualquiera puede crear un nuevo sitio web y convertirse en un competidor. La competencia potencial siempre está a la vuelta de la esquina.

In the new paradigm, demand is more elastic. For example, we need electricity, and there’s not really any way around that. On the other hand, we don’t need Netflix. The difference between these two needs is the elasticity of demand. Platforms don’t put a chokehold on our needs the way monopolies tend to do.

People don’t hate platform companies the way they tend to hate traditional corporations. Yes, companies like Google and Amazon certainly have their detractors. There is plenty of irrational jealousy directed at figures such as Mark Zuckerberg, but he isn’t hated nearly as much as someone like John D. Rockefeller was. Platforms don’t have the kind of power in people’s lives the way that monopolies are disposed to have, so they don’t generate the same level of hatred.

Las empresas de plataformas tienden a tener discriminación de precios, es decir, las diferentes partes pagan tarifas diferentes. Por esta razón, y por todas las razones enumeradas anteriormente, las empresas de plataformas de tecnología de la información son diferentes de los monopolios.

Capítulo 3: No más una mera librería

In this chapter, we explore the history of amazon.com. In many respects, Amazon makes a good model for how to do things right. Amazon was predicted to fail in 2001. In response, founder Jeff Bezos decided to grow the company as fast as possible. By 2002, it was the first retailer to make a profit on internet commerce. Today it’s a big success.

It’s helpful to have First Mover Advantage (FMA). Being the first company to make a significant move in a market puts a company at a distinct advantage. You don’t necessarily have to be first, but early is good. An example of this is how Amazon beat the competition to simplify the process of making a purchase. At one time, it took 12 clicks to buy something on EBay. In 1997, Amazon introduced 1-Click transactions. They managed to reduce a lot of transaction friction and people gravitated to the site.

Customer experience is important. Amazon puts lots of effort into providing good customer service. The importance of customer experience is magnified due to the potency of network effects. Amazon asks for permission when it uses people’s info. This is a good thing to do. They also let people opt out of their emails. Users are encouraged to feel that their concerns matter to the company.

There are two levels of platform technology. The transaction is on the first level. The second level is how the platform makes suggestions and recommendations to users. Powerful business intelligence software allows the site to make relevant suggestions to users without the clutter of ads the users might not appreciate. Users can rate the products they purchase. In fact, they can even rate products that they didn’t purchase on the platform. The rating system takes advantage of network effects and allows the site to be even more accurate in the products it recommends to individual customers.

Amazon no tiene miedo de correr riesgos y probar cosas nuevas. A veces, la diversificación en otras cosas ocurre por accidente, como sucedió con la computación en la nube. Hay todo tipo de ramificaciones de Amazon porque aprovechan este tipo de creación fortuita.

Make no mistake, Amazon does have its fair share of errors and problems. With Kindle, they thought they could rewrite the publishing industry. They were wrong. Publishers are distrustful of the pricing scheme Amazon has for eBooks. There have been controversies over the products that Amazon does and does not sell. For example, attempting to block pornography from the site has resulted in books getting blocked that are legitimate gay and lesbian literature. It isn’t a simple thing to define some categories; what is considered pornography by some is regarded as erotica and sex positive material by others.

Amazon seguirá enfrentándose a la competencia. Los desafíos de la legislación se avecinan; Existe un fuerte impulso para obligar a los minoristas en línea a cobrar impuestos sobre las ventas. Hay muchas pruebas por delante para Amazon. Aun así, Amazon está bien posicionado para seguir creciendo y cambiando en el futuro.

Capítulo 4: Más allá de la computadora

Ahora, echa un vistazo a Apple. Érase una vez, en 1977, tres becarios, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak y Ronald Wayne. Comenzaron una pequeña empresa llamada Apple Computer. Es conocido que Jobs se vio obligado a dimitir en 1985, solo para volver a la empresa en 1997.

In the mid-1980s, the company started developing other devices in addition to computers. They designed cameras, CD players, speakers and many other high tech gadgets. By the aughts, it was clear that the company was much more than a computer manufacturer. Apple Computer legally changed their name, dropping the word “computer” and simply calling the company Apple. They successfully branched out into many different products beyond computers. They also made big piles of money selling content.

Good design is part of the brand; Apple products look good and they don’t have extraneous bells and whistles. They are intuitive and straightforward. Simplicity, ease of use and enjoyment are the qualities that made Apple products great. These are also the qualities that make for great platforms. Products like the iPhone allowed partners to create apps, and so Apple became a platform company.

They continued to innovate. An important issue was how to maintain simplicity even though people have a bunch of different devices. Apple’s solution to this problem is to use cloud computing. The iPhone was a breakthrough. The App Store has made a lot of money for Apple.

Apple está feliz de asociarse con pequeños como programadores, pero no tanto con los grandes. Estas decisiones se toman estratégicamente para ayudar a fomentar una comunidad de usuarios pero evitar dar aire a los competidores. Abrieron la Interfaz de programación de aplicaciones (API) y ahora la App Store les permite crecer aún más sin tener que pagar a los desarrolladores, programadores, administradores o cualquier otra persona por estas aplicaciones. Las API abiertas hicieron que la innovación ocurriera más rápido. Al igual que otras importantes empresas de plataformas, Apple descubrió cómo monetizar su ecosistema además de vender hardware y software.

Apple has exerted control in some cases that has made some of its partners unhappy. Porn apps were prohibited from the App Store. They also had to get pretty firm about the quality of apps that they’ll sell at the store. For the most part, however, they do what they can to keep the developers happy. They understand how important those developers are. They found a variety of external partners to work with. iTunes became successful because of its partnerships with big recording and publishing firms.

Apple has its critics. Some musicians don’t like iTunes because of its impact on that industry. Some people don’t like Apple’s fat margins. Apple offers a premium product, however, and so it’s entitled to charge premium prices. The criticisms are quickly dispatched with, perhaps too quickly. In the future, Apple will probably become a bigger target for hackers. But they will find a way through any problems.

Apple has been remarkably successful because it’s innovative and different. Its executives are wooed by other big tech firms. Everyone wants what they’ve got. They keep on being successful year after year, decade after decade.

Jobs murió justo cuando Simon estaba terminando el libro. La discusión de su muerte se adjunta de manera algo incómoda al final del capítulo.

Capítulo 5: El rey de las redes sociales

Next, we turn to Facebook. Facebook rose fast. Founder Mark Zuckerberg is a platform genius. He knew right from the beginning that he wanted the site to be a platform, back when no one was thinking like that. It was founded in 2004 by Zuckerberg and two chaps who are probably still hitting themselves because they didn’t stick around for long (Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.)

Back in the day, Friendster was the big social networking site. It was enormously popular. In fact, it was too popular. There weren’t enough servers for all the people who wanted to be on it. Pages loaded slowly, and the user experience suffered. It was clear that there was a strong demand for this sort of site, but only if it functioned well.

Zuckerberg learned from Friendster’s mistakes. He made performance a priority. He was cautious about building the platform, because he wanted to be able to scale it up with minimum problems. He added planks one by one. Expansion was gradual.

Una de las razones de su popularidad es que Facebook es gratuito para los usuarios. El espacio publicitario se vende para ganar dinero para la plataforma.

A big problem with early social networking sites like Friendster and Myspace was in allowing people to pretend to be whoever they wanted. They were wide open to frauds, spammers and all types of unsavory characters. Zuckerberg learned from this. Authenticity is important to building community. For this reason, people have to use their real names on Facebook. Certainly, the safeguards that are in place don’t make it impossible for someone to create a false identity on Facebook, but most people on the site are who they say they are.

The Facebook platform has a number of planks, such as ads, games, Facebook credits (the platform’s universal currency), the Like button, fan pages, tags and the news feed. But wait, there’s more! Other planks include events, email, instant messaging, groups and notes. And the hits just keep on coming. No doubt Zuckerberg will continue planking up his platform long into the future.

The platform does have its share of problems. Chief among them is the issue of censorship. Facebook has been inconsistent with what’s allowed to be posted. The site has received negative publicity for censoring famous people. Another big problem is privacy. Historically the platform has been laissez faire about dealing with this. It is also stingy with its API, reducing the potential for a community of developers to coalesce around the platform. Additionally, the platform is constantly changing. Sometimes people don’t like the changes and they go on Facebook to complain about it to their friends. This is so ironic.

El futuro es brillante para Facebook. Una gran pregunta es si la empresa se hará pública. La SEC podría forzar el problema. Podría resultar problemático. A veces, los empleados talentosos abandonan las empresas cuando salen a bolsa porque reciben acciones y se vuelven ricos instantáneamente.

A probable future development will see Facebook grow on mobile platforms. FB seems like they’ve learned from their mistakes and they’re likely going to be successful long into the future.

Capítulo 6: De la búsqueda a la ubicuidad

Sergey Brin and Larry Page incorporated Google in 1998. It didn’t take them long to realize that their search engine was limited. Even if they could search and index the web with breathtaking speed and efficiency, people would use the site more if it did more than simply search.

Google agregó muchas funciones más allá de las simples búsquedas de palabras clave, a veces creciendo tan rápido que sus propósitos desafiaban la lógica o la planificación. Por ejemplo, escanearon el contenido de las bibliotecas sin obtener el permiso de derechos de autor de los editores.

Google tiene muchísimos tablones. Esto mantiene a los usuarios en su plataforma. Esto incluye tablones como móviles, mapas y mucho más. Continúan agregando más productos. Como lo hicieron Amazon, Apple y Facebook, Google ha crecido moviéndose hacia los lados. También monetizaron la plataforma con anuncios; Además, obtuvieron ingresos cobrando para que las empresas aparecieran en las búsquedas de los usuarios.

La política de la empresa fomenta la innovación entre los empleados. Parte de la forma en que Google mantiene una ventaja es exigir a los ingenieros que dediquen el veinte por ciento de su tiempo a trabajar en los productos que les gusten. Han institucionalizado la innovación.

Google intenta mantener a los usuarios en su plataforma ofreciendo muchos servicios diferentes. Los servicios integrados son muy convenientes. En lugar de tener que iniciar sesión en numerosos sitios web diferentes para hacer una variedad de cosas, los usuarios pueden permanecer dentro de los límites de una plataforma.

Google personaliza cada resultado de búsqueda para cada usuario, utilizando toda la información que ha recopilado sobre ellos. El algoritmo de búsqueda adapta los resultados de forma adecuada a los usuarios individuales.

Google loves freemium. They charge users for very few things. This has certainly helped make them successful, but at the same time, they probably didn’t have a lot of choice. Services like search engines and email are offered for free by many different websites. With all this competition, Google probably would have failed had they tried to charge for these services.

Google tiene muchos socios institucionales importantes. Empresas de telecomunicaciones como Verizon y AT&T venden Google Droids. También hay miles de desarrolladores que crean aplicaciones para la plataforma.
Google has made their share of missteps. With their fingers in so many pies, it’s inevitable that a few mistakes will be made.

There are significant problems with privacy. For example, the mapping service Street View lets people look at all sorts of public and private spaces. They tried to get into the Chinese market, but the Chinese government didn’t play nice, and Google got all sorts of criticism for saying they’d go along with Chinese censorship. The whole thing didn’t last long. Another problem Google faces is that people perceive the company as arrogant. To a certain extent, this is due to their size and accomplishments. There will always be some people who are hostile to successful enterprises.

Looking to the future, Google will need to make some changes. Right now, they earn most of their money from advertising. They need to diversify. They need to balance growth and focus. But you know, they’re a big company; they’re innovative; they’ll be fine.

Capítulo 7: El ADN: componentes y características de la plataforma

The Gang of Four consists of the currently “most important” platforms on the internet. The Gang of Four have all changed a lot in the years since they started up. Maybe not so much Facebook, but certainly the rest of them originally weren’t even platforms when they started.

They all had the ability to scale, the ability to add more features and adapt to the changes that growth brings. Scaling is easier nowadays because of cloud computing. Companies no longer need to have more tangible resources as they grow. It’s crucial, however, to have enough computing power in order to scale up.

There are many properties these four platforms have in common. They all have dynamic stability, meaning they are stable and yet always changing. They are adaptable. They’re all dependent on data and technology. They collect lots of information about people because that helps them make decisions and function better. They understand their customers. The Gang of Four have lots of partners because that grows their businesses. They take advantage of network effects. They have communities that are really engaged. They benefit from positive feels. They have virality. The Gang of Four all have products that have the quality of simplicity. Their products are easy to use and are not junked up with extras and frills.

Lots of existing companies have cultures which make it difficult for them to form partnerships. They don’t play well with others. Collaboration is one of the only ways to “grow the pie” of value. Partners are necessities.

It’s useful to borrow ideas from other platforms, especially the successful ones. Facebook pioneered the like button, and now it, or something very much like it, is ubiquitous across the internet. Everyone borrows each other’s good ideas.

Platforms should cultivate stickiness, provide lots of different features so that it’s convenient for users to stay on the site as they engage in a variety of activities. The longer people are kept on the platform, the better.

Major platforms tend to have well known “rock star” executives at the top. Think of Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Jobs. These people didn’t become household names for nothing. Platform companies have visionary leaders. They aren’t democratic. Decision making can be done quickly when leadership is strong and there are few protocols requiring them to gain consensus. Once a decision is made, these leaders can then ensure that the decision is acted on.

Generally, it isn’t easy to move from one platform to another. You can’t look up Facebook entries on Google, for example. This is by design. Platforms want to keep users in the fold as much as possible, and don’t want them bleeding off to other platforms. Even so, the Gang of Four are all frenemies. The businesses overlap in significant ways and are natural competitors with one another. Yet they do cooperate with each other when it’s logical to do so. Users on one platform can typically import contact lists and similar information across multiple platforms.

In a lot of situations, it might not be possible for platforms to avoid politics. In today’s world, politics tinge many decisions whether firms like it or not. However, controversy can help a platform. Controversy can draw people to visit and check it out.

Capítulo 8: ¡Dame el premio! Los beneficios de las plataformas

It’s scary for existing firms to consider changing to the platform model, because that model contradicts so much traditional business wisdom. Considering how much there is to gain, however, all businesses should take a good hard look at moving to a platform business model. Platforms magnify the power of brands. Platform brands can become so powerful they are verb branded, that is to say, the firm’s name describes their core activity. For example, googling. For Google, this happened because they did their job better than their competitors. The brand has become seared into public awareness.

Hay barreras de entrada, y la ventaja de ser el primero en moverse funciona en contra de aquellos que recién ahora están ingresando al campo. Todo el mundo ya está jugando al juego de Internet, por lo que es poco probable que su plataforma de widgets tenga éxito porque algún otro distribuidor de widgets ya se le adelantó. Sin embargo, esta no es una razón para evitar las plataformas. Cuanto antes cree una plataforma, más se adelantará a las empresas que vendrán después de usted. Y un enfoque innovador puede llevar a su empresa a ser la primera y tener esa sabrosa ventaja de ser el primero en moverse en nuevas áreas que son casi imposibles de predecir con anticipación.

Innovation is good. Welcome external players. Of course, it’s important to generate innovation in-house as well. Innovation sparks more innovation. As companies grow they have more resources to put toward innovation. Innovation can have positive or negative effects, it’s not just good all the time.

There are absolutely scads of good reasons to jump on the platform bandwagon. If you still aren’t convinced, the rest of this chapter will attempt to change your mind with one persuasive rationale after another.

Las plataformas pueden ayudar a hacer crecer su negocio de formas que nunca podría haber previsto. A veces, una plataforma iniciará un negocio paralelo que se vuelve cada vez más lucrativo e importante de lo que alguna vez fue la empresa original.

Las plataformas pueden ofrecer múltiples productos y servicios, lo que puede ahorrar tiempo a los clientes de tener que ir a diferentes lugares. Esto evitará que sus clientes se pasen a sus competidores. Tus clientes estarán agradecidos de tener la comodidad de tener todo en un solo lugar y su lealtad seguirá creciendo.

Entre las muchas ventajas del negocio de plataformas se encuentran las actividades de extracción de datos en las que suelen participar. La información recopilada puede aumentar su comprensión de sus clientes. Puede hacer recomendaciones basadas en sus preferencias, lo que mejorará las ventas.

Platforms can react quicker to changing conditions than traditional firms. New products can be launched faster. They can respond with great agility to unexpected trends. In a world of continuous change, the ability to be light on one’s feet is essential.

Don’t let your company languish in the technological Stone Age. Your competition is probably already working on a platform right now.

Capítulo 9: Eslingas y flechas: los peligros de las plataformas

While platforms are a great business model now in its ascendancy, that doesn’t mean that they are free of problems. Like any field of human endeavor, there is plenty of room for shortcomings and failure. Platforms aren’t always successful, for one thing. Sometimes they never get off the ground, sometimes they crash and burn. Platforms have their limits. They can’t sell bad products any more successfully than a traditional business can.

There are plenty of bad actors on the internet stage. Many have engaged in fraud. There are ads for illegal products. These problems have stirred regulatory interest. There really aren’t the resources to go after all the bad actors, so the government goes after the worst and most high profile ones.

Dishonest behavior doesn’t stay secret long. Misbehavior, or even mild controversy, can attract tons of negative attention. Needless to say, this can be devastating for network effects. In today’s world, reputation is more important than ever. Platforms should always strive to stay on the up-and-up.

The Gang of Four are as fast as anyone to make aggressive business moves. Sometimes this makes people mad at them. The Gang of Four often succeeded through ignoring established rules, laws and conventions, at least at the beginning when they were gaining momentum. You want to try to please your customers but sometimes, especially when you make changes, you can’t make everyone happy. There is real danger of alienating your user base, a real conundrum considering the need to move quickly and embrace change.

It’s good to have external partners. They enhance the functionality of the platform and help to increase the user base. There is a danger, though, that the partners on your platform will grow to become your competition. Affiliations between partners are fluid, and you should never expect such relationships to last forever.

Platforms aren’t a perfect solution to all the world’s ills. Lots of people dislike any given platform for any number of reasons. Just because an enterprise is a platform is not a guarantee it will do well. Many platforms are unsuccessful and fail. Some examples of platform failures include Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo!, Myspace, eBay and Enron. We can learn quite a bit from studying the failures of others. Each of these failed endeavors are examined and important lessons are highlighted. Although some of these companies have survived in the long run, they all have missed important opportunities in ways that caused them significant damage. For example, Myspace was once a social media powerhouse, but it had important design problems. In an extreme example of user personalization, it lacked a coherent interface making the platform inconsistent and confusing. In addition to these problems, there wasn’t an easy way to monetize the platform. Top executives were unable to figure out how the company could make a decent profit off the site.

There are many potential headaches and pitfalls for the platform business, but this doesn’t mean that it’s not worthwhile to pursue the business model. The rewards outweigh the potential downsides.

Capítulo 10: El cómo: consejos para construir una plataforma

Here we have a chapter loaded with good advice for designing platforms. Be forewarned, however, that there’s no magic path that will lead to a platform that will make you rich and famous. Even if you follow all of these recommendations, it’s no guarantee of success. This chapter is somewhat like if you had an uncle in in the business who is happy to share his experiences with you and give you his advice.

Sea simple y lo más mínimo posible. Evite la burocracia. Actúa pequeño. Las empresas tradicionales se estancan en las reglas y el papeleo que realmente pueden obstaculizar la innovación.

Fomente la comunidad en su plataforma manteniéndose abierto y colaborativo. Las API abiertas son realmente importantes para fomentar una comunidad activa.

Look for extensions — new planks — that fit with your core activity. Make intelligent acquisitions. In some situations, it can be better to buy a company that has technology that you want than to try to replicate the technology and have that company out there competing with you.

Desarrolla muchas ideas. Toma pequeños riesgos. Siga ese camino para ver si lleva a alguna parte.

Mantenga las operaciones comerciales centrales aunque también innove.

Understand that you’ll fail frequently. That’s OK. That’s the price of innovation. Don’t let it stop you.

El perfeccionismo puede ser un obstáculo para hacer las cosas. Por supuesto, desea proporcionar un producto de calidad, pero en algún momento, debe dejarlo ir. Centrarse en la perfección total te ralentiza. En el momento en que su producto sea perfecto, es posible que esté obsoleto.

Empiece con la mayor capacidad que pueda. El exceso es bueno. De esa manera, puede manejar picos inesperados. De esa manera, puede escalar cuando llegue el momento.

Know when it’s time to get out.

Mejor es la anchura que la profundidad. Es mejor hacer muchas cosas que especializarse profundamente en una sola. Una plataforma que tiene múltiples funciones relacionadas mantendrá a los usuarios en la plataforma mejor que una plataforma que hace una cosa realmente bien.

It’s dangerous to cling to safety. Embrace risk. It’s safer.

When you see an opportunity, move quickly. Patience is good in many ways when you build a platform. However, most opportunities don’t stick around for long. The secret is in knowing the opportunities that will best serve your platform and jumping on them quickly.

Take advantage of existing planks. It’s a lot of work creating new planks from scratch. External websites, emails, blogs, applications and open source tools can all be harnessed to benefit your platform.

Encourage cross pollination. Don’t fear your competitors being on your platform. Likewise, you should try to get on theirs.

Agregue tablas según sea necesario. Busque brechas en los servicios que brinda y determine si esas brechas se pueden llenar a través de asociaciones, agregando planchas internas o comprando una empresa que brinde el servicio.

Be realistic. Don’t imagine that you’ll get rich quick or anything like that.

Chapter 11: The Candidates: Today’s Emerging Platforms

En el futuro, la Banda de los Cuatro tendrá que vigilar de cerca a los demás, así como monitorear cualquier nueva competencia que surja. Nadie sabe qué pasará a continuación. La retrospectiva puede hacer que algunos cambios parezcan inevitables, pero esos cambios pasados fueron tan difíciles de predecir en su día como los cambios futuros lo son hoy. Teniendo esto en cuenta, Simon se lanza valientemente a la refriega e identifica algunas plataformas que cree que son prometedoras y que pueden llegar a dominar sus campos tanto como lo hace la Banda de los Cuatro en la actualidad.

Una plataforma que se muestra prometedora es Foursquare. Esta plataforma permite a las personas usar dispositivos móviles para registrarse en lugares públicos. Las personas pueden marcar lugares y compartir información con otros. Esta plataforma está haciendo las cosas bien al permitir la integración con sitios de redes sociales existentes como Facebook y al mantener su API abierta a los desarrolladores.

Twitter ha existido por un tiempo. Tuvieron algunos problemas para escalar cuando se hicieron populares. Se actualizaron a una nueva tecnología que podría manejar el crecimiento. Actuaron sobre esta decisión rápidamente. Como se dice anteriormente, en el Capítulo Diez, las oportunidades deben aprovecharse con la debida rapidez.

WordPress es un sistema de gestión de contenido que proporciona una plataforma para que los usuarios creen blogs y sitios web propios. Tiene una API abierta y los desarrolladores realmente han optado por extensiones y complementos de construcción de ciudades para la plataforma.

Groupon, que ofrece grandes ofertas en mercados de todo el mundo, se ha vuelto rápidamente popular. Su API está abierta a cualquier persona que se registre, y tienen una declaración en su sitio que da la bienvenida abiertamente a los desarrolladores para que creen mejoras, nuevas extensiones e interfaces. A partir de 2011, cuando se escribió este libro, se espera que se publiquen pronto. Los analistas esperan que a la empresa le vaya bien.

Adobe es bien conocido por su visor de PDF Reader y su aplicación de video Flash, pero la compañía en realidad hace mucho más. Su Creative Suite reúne un conjunto de herramientas que ayudan a los usuarios a diseñar y dar formato a sitios web, aplicaciones y videos. También ofrecen un kit de desarrollo de software llamado Flex, así como herramientas de desarrollo para aplicaciones móviles. En 2011, reunieron todos sus productos y los reunieron en una plataforma, Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform. Si bien Apple ha tratado a Adobe con hostilidad, otras plataformas han sido más acogedoras; por ejemplo, Google Android es compatible con Flash, pero Apple no. Adobe deberá encontrar una manera de lidiar con Apple para que su plataforma prospere.

La ejecución de aplicaciones en la nube puede ser una forma para que las empresas subcontraten el desarrollo y el mantenimiento de hardware y software. Marc Benioff, el fundador de Salesforce.com, cree que esta es una gran idea y espera que considere su servicio. Salesforce ha abierto su infraestructura a los desarrolladores para que las empresas puedan ejecutar las aplicaciones que deseen en los servidores de Salesforce.com. Ofrecen una amplia gama de herramientas para ayudar a los desarrolladores a lograr esto a través de su plataforma Force.com.

LinkedIn is huge, and it continues to grow in popularity. It’s a good place for job recruiters to find highly qualified candidates. Like other successful platforms, its APIs are available to developers on its website.

Quora provides crowdsourced questions and answers. They don’t have an open API. Strictly speaking, they aren’t exactly a platform, but they do have a strong community centered on their website. It’s really more than a plank than a platform, but we’ll keep our eye on this to see if a platform develops out of it.

No one knows what the future holds for these, or any other, platforms. Don’t let uncertainty hold you back. Use the websites that suit you and your circumstances the best, not because they are on this list or because they dominate the field. Create your own platforms in the spirit of enterprise and enthusiasm. Remember, this is a rapidly changing environment. Sometimes you’ve just got to take the plunge.

Chapter 12: Coda: A Glimpse of What’s Beyond

Platforms can bring great success to a business. They are the best business model for these times because a platform is never a finished product. It always changes and grows. It’s adaptable. We need an adaptable business model because all kinds of technological changes are on their way. New products and services are here, like wearables, robot vacuum cleaners and facial recognition.

La Web 3.0 se basará en datos integrados. Entonces, por ejemplo, cuando miras una fecha en tu calendario, te muestra las fotos que tomaste ese día, tu lista de compras, tus transacciones bancarias, etc.

El mañana pertenece a la Web Semántica. Al igual que los documentos tienen estándares, los datos deben tener estándares. De esa manera, los datos se pueden usar en todas las plataformas. Esto cambiará la forma en que interactuamos con los datos y con la forma en que los datos interactúan con nosotros. Los datos se utilizarán de forma ubicua; incluso nuestro trabajo dental se logrará a través de la nanobiótica.

It’s predicted that the process will accelerate. Some theorists say that people are going to merge with computers. We could be seeing the dawn of nonbiological intelligence. We might be on the threshold of singularity, that is to say, the entire planet could be united as a single intelligence composed of individual people and machines just as human brains are composed of individual cells and other tissues.

We don’t yet know what all these new things mean for platforms. The Gang of Four will certainly do their best to change and adapt, attempting to stay ahead of the curve. These strategies have done well for them in the past, so they likely won’t abandon them. Beyond that, it’s not possible to predict what these companies will do. For one thing, big companies don’t broadcast their plans until they’re ready to implement them. There’s no point in tipping your hand to the competition. But even more to the point, the big companies probably don’t know yet themselves how they’re going to meet future challenges. Even the smart guys can’t predict the future, so like the rest of us, they have to respond to change as it occurs.

That isn’t to say the big companies passively lie around waiting for change. They strike a balance, experimenting with things and making provisional plans. They do everything they can to prepare for change. The Big Four do have an advantage, they can afford to make some mistakes. Other companies not as much.

Prepare for the future. Don’t expect amazing results, but do build a platform with planks. Take the advice in this book, look to the Big Four for role models. Avoid the pitfalls of failed companies. Stay open to change. We’d all like to live in simpler times, but it just isn’t possible to go backwards. Adapt. Change. Grow. Live in the now.