第 1 章：互联网：我们现在在哪里？

这本书以互联网的高级历史开始。 1993 年，发布了第一个 Web 浏览器。最初称为 Mosaic，后来更名为 Netscape。随着人们开始互相发送电子邮件、浏览网络并创建自己的页面，互联网变得越来越流行。

许多企业纷纷涌现以利用新技术。到 90 年代后期，出售的商品和服务范围很广。谷歌的出现改善了整个体验，让人们更容易找到他们正在寻找的东西。

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.

信息技术革命有其负外部性。行业受到干扰，许多公司被迫停业。美国公司不再享有本地优势，现在必须与来自其他国家的公司竞争，这些公司可能劳动力更便宜或监管更少。没有任何企业可以免受这些不断变化的市场力量的影响。技术降低了进入门槛，使新企业的创业更容易、成本更低，这意味着现在世界各地的许多企业都在相互竞争。这对于赞比亚的新创企业来说可能是件好事，但这也意味着对传统业务的侵蚀。一切都在重新调整，这对某些人来说是好事，但对另一些人来说却是坏事。

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.

第 2 章：平台：定义、历史和经济学

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.

平台是一个易于扩展并包含功能、用户和合作伙伴的生态系统。平台允许人们相互联系并交换信息。它们使第三方协作变得更加容易。该平台是一种商业模式。即使是大公司也可以成为平台。在一个良性（而不是恶性）循环中，平台产生网络效应，使平台更受欢迎，从而产生更多的网络效应。平台是零碎构建的。平台的每个组件都称为木板。平台一直存在，但计算机赋予它们新的力量。现在它们是涡轮增压的。

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.

平台进入门槛低。任何人都可以创建一个新网站并成为竞争者。潜在的竞争总是指日可待。

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.

平台公司往往存在价格歧视，即不同方支付不同的费用。出于这个原因，以及上面列出的所有原因，信息技术平台公司不同于垄断企业。

第 3 章：不再是单纯的书店

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.

亚马逊不怕冒险并尝试新事物。有时，扩展到其他事物是偶然发生的，就像云计算那样。有各种各样的亚马逊分支，因为它们利用了这种偶然的创造。

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.

亚马逊将继续面临竞争。立法挑战迫在眉睫；有强烈的推动力迫使在线零售商征收销售税。亚马逊面临着许多考验。即便如此，亚马逊仍处于有利地位，可以继续发展并改变未来。

第 4 章：超越计算机

现在来看看苹果。从前的 1977 年，有三个人，史蒂夫·乔布斯、史蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克和罗纳德·韦恩。他们创办了一家名为 Apple Computer 的小企业。众所周知，乔布斯在 1985 年被迫辞职，直到 1997 年才回到公司。

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.

苹果乐于与程序员这样的小人物合作，但与大人物合作却不是很多。这些决定是战略性的，以帮助培养用户社区，但避免向竞争对手提供空气。他们开放了应用程序编程接口 (API)，现在 App Store 使他们能够进一步发展，而无需为这些应用程序向开发人员、程序员、服务人员或其他任何人付费。开放 API 使创新更快发生。与其他主要平台公司一样，除了销售硬件和软件之外，Apple 还想出了如何通过其生态系统获利。

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.

就在西蒙完成这本书的时候，乔布斯去世了。关于他的死的讨论有点尴尬地附加在本章的末尾。

第五章：社交之王

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.

其受欢迎的原因之一是 Facebook 对用户免费。出售广告空间是为了为平台赚钱。

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.

Facebook的未来是光明的。一个大问题是该公司是否会上市。 SEC 可能会强制执行此问题。这可能有问题。有时，有才华的员工在上市时会离开公司，因为他们获得了股票并立即变得富有。

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.

第 6 章：从搜索到无处不在

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.

除了简单的关键字搜索之外，谷歌还添加了许多功能，有时增长速度如此之快，以至于其目的无视逻辑或计划。例如，他们在未获得出版商版权许可的情况下扫描图书馆的内容。

谷歌有很多很多木板。这使用户保持在其平台上。这包括移动、地图等木板。他们继续添加更多产品。正如亚马逊、苹果和 Facebook 所做的那样，谷歌通过横向移动实现了增长。他们还通过广告将平台货币化；此外，他们还通过向用户搜索公司收取费用来增加收入。

公司政策鼓励员工创新。谷歌保持优势的部分方式是要求工程师将 20% 的时间花在他们喜欢的任何产品上。他们已经制度化了创新。

谷歌试图通过提供许多不同的服务来让用户留在其平台上。综合服务非常方便。用户不必登录许多不同的网站来做各种事情，而是可以停留在一个平台的范围内。

谷歌使用它收集的关于他们的所有信息，为每个用户个性化每个搜索结果。搜索算法为个人用户适当地定制结果。

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.

谷歌拥有众多大型机构合作伙伴。 Verizon 和 AT&T 等电信公司销售 Google Droids。还有成千上万的开发人员为该平台创建应用程序。
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.

第 7 章：DNA：平台组件和特征

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.

第八章 给我奖品！平台的好处

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.

有进入壁垒，先发优势对那些刚刚进入该领域的人不利。每个人都已经在玩网络游戏了，所以你的小部件平台不太可能成功，因为其他小部件经销商已经打败了你。然而，这不是避免使用平台的理由。你越早创建一个平台，你就越能领先于你之后的公司。创新方法可以使您的公司成为第一，并在几乎不可能提前预测的新领域中拥有可口的先发优势。

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.

平台可以帮助您以前所未有的方式发展业务。有时，一个平台会开始一项比原来的企业更有利可图和更重要的副业。

平台可以提供多种产品和服务，这可以节省客户不必去不同地方的时间。这将防止您的客户转向您的竞争对手。您的客户会很高兴能够将所有东西都集中在一个地方，并且他们的忠诚度将继续增长。

平台业务的众多优势之一是他们通常从事的数据挖掘活动。收集的信息可以增加您对客户的了解。您可以根据他们的喜好提出建议，这将提高销售额。

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.

第 9 章：弹弓和箭：平台的危险

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.

第 10 章：方法：构建平台的技巧

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.

保持简单和尽可能少。避免官僚主义。做小事。传统公司陷入了真正阻碍创新的规则和文书工作中。

通过保持开放和协作，在您的平台上培育社区。开放 API 对于培养活跃的社区非常重要。

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.

开发很多想法。承担小风险。沿着那条路走下去，看看它是否通向某个地方。

即使您也在创新，也要保持核心业务运营。

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

完美主义可能是完成工作的障碍。当然，您想提供优质的产品，但在某些时候，您必须放手。专注于完全完美会减慢你的速度。当你的产品完美时，它很可能已经过时了。

从最大的容量开始。过量是好的。这样您就可以处理意外的峰值。这样你就可以在时机成熟时扩大规模。

Know when it’s time to get out.

广度优于深度。做很多事情比专注于一件事情要好。一个具有多种相关功能的平台比一个做一件事的平台更能留住用户。

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.

根据需要添加木板。寻找您提供的服务中的差距，并确定这些差距是否可以通过合作伙伴关系、添加内部木板或购买提供服务的公司来填补。

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

Chapter 11: The Candidates: Today’s Emerging Platforms

未来，四人帮将不得不密切关注彼此，并监视出现的任何新竞争。没有人知道接下来会发生什么。事后看来，有些变化似乎是不可避免的，但那些过去的变化在当时与未来的变化一样难以预测。考虑到这一点，西蒙勇敢地加入了战斗，并确定了一些他认为有希望的平台，这些平台可能会像今天的四人帮一样主宰他们的领域。

一个显示出希望的平台是 Foursquare。该平台允许人们使用移动设备在公共场所办理登机手续。人们可以为地点添加书签并与他人共享信息。该平台通过允许与 Facebook 等现有社交媒体网站集成，并保持其 API 对开发人员开放，从而在做正确的事情。

Twitter 已经存在一段时间了。当它们变得流行时，它们在扩展时遇到了一些问题。他们升级到可以应对增长的新技术。他们迅速对这个决定采取了行动。如上所述，在第十章中，应该以应有的速度抓住机会。

WordPress 是一个内容管理系统，它为用户提供了一个平台来创建自己的博客和网站。它有一个开放的 API，开发人员真的为这个平台构建了扩展和插件。

Groupon 提供来自世界各地市场的超值优惠，迅速流行起来。他们的 API 对任何注册的人开放，他们在他们的网站上有一个声明，公开欢迎开发人员创建改进、新的扩展和接口。到 2011 年，当这本书写成时，他们预计很快就会上市。分析师预计该公司表现良好。

Adobe 以其 PDF 查看器阅读器和视频应用程序 Flash 而闻名，但该公司实际上做得更多。他们的 Creative Suite 汇集了一组工具，可帮助用户设计和格式化网站、应用程序和视频。他们还提供名为 Flex 的软件开发工具包，以及用于移动应用程序的开发人员工具。 2011 年，他们收集了所有产品并将它们集中到一个平台上，即 Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform。虽然苹果对 Adobe 怀有敌意，但其他平台更受欢迎。例如，Google Android 支持 Flash，而 Apple 不支持。 Adobe 需要找到一种与 Apple 打交道的方法，以使其平台蓬勃发展。

在云中运行应用程序可以成为企业外包硬件和软件开发和维护的一种方式。 Salesforce.com 的创始人 Marc Benioff 认为这是一个好主意，他希望您能考虑他的服务。 Salesforce 已向开发人员开放他们的基础设施，以便公司可以在 Salesforce.com 服务器上运行他们想要的任何应用程序。他们提供了广泛的工具来帮助开发人员通过其 Force.com 平台实现这一目标。

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.

Web 3.0 将是关于集成数据的。因此，例如，当您查看日历上的日期时，它会显示您当天拍摄的照片、购物清单、银行交易记录等。

明天属于语义网。就像文档有标准一样，数据也应该有标准。这样数据就可以跨平台使用。这将改变我们与数据交互的方式以及数据与我们交互的方式。数据将无处不在；甚至我们的牙科工作也将通过纳米生物来实现。

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.