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Catalyst Code: How to Ignite a platform business and rule a platform-centric ecosystem
David S. Evans
Founder | Market Platform Dynamics
Visiting Professor | University College London
Lecturer | University of Chicago
Catalyst Course 2012
20 April 2012
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2. Catalyst Panorama
Platform Businesses Dominate the Economic Landscape

3. OpenTable: Intermediary between Two Different Kinds of Customers
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4. The OpenTable Business Model Restaurants Pay and Consumers Use it for Free
$100 million revenue in 2010 | $1.35 billion markets cap
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5. The Result: Positive Feedback Effects Fuel Open Table Growth
27 million reservations in 2011Q4 a month up from 19 million in 2010Q4
25k restaurants in 2011Q4 up from 20k in 2010Q4
More than 40% yoy growth in revenue
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6. Many “Multi-Sided Platform” Businesses Operate Like This Positive Feedback Effects Fuel Business Growth
COMPANY
CUSTOMER SIDE A
CUSTOMER SIDE B
Windows
Users
Developers
Google Search
Searchers
Advertisers
Deutsche Bourse
Liquidity providers
Liquidity takers
eHarmony
Men
Women
Paris Match
Readers
Roppongi Hills
Shops
Shoppers
American Express
Cardhodlers
Merchants
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7. These Multi-Sided Platforms Include Many Massive Global Businesses
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8. Catalysts Create Real Value Providing a Platform Where Customers Can Meet and Transact
Platforms can create tremendous value by eliminating pain points in exchange
To ignite, platforms must solve extremely difficult coordination problem
But if do, they can generate tremendous profits through positive feedback effects
Sustaining those profits requires treacherous navigation in an n-dimensional universe of colliding platforms like Google Search (3-sided), Facebook’s Social Network (4-sided) and Microsoft Windows (3-sided)
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9. Catalysts, Platforms and Two-Sided Markets Defining Terms
(Economic) Catalysts are intermediaries that create value by brining two or more types of agents (businesses or people) together.
(Multi-sided) Platforms are the virtual or physical places that catalysts create to enable multiple types of agents to find and transact with each other and thereby create and exchange value.
Economists sometimes call these platforms Two-sided Markets a term that was introduced in the pioneering work by French economists Jean-Charles Rochet and Jean Tirole.
A customer type is sometimes call a platform “side”.
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10. The Catalyst Curriculum
Catalyst Panorama
How Platform Businesses Dominate the Economics Landscape
Catalyst Defined
The New Economics of Two-Sided Markets
Catalyst Construction
How to Use the Catalyst Toolkit to Build a Profitable Platform Business
Catalyst Ignition
How to Start a Platform Business and Obtain Explosive Growth
Catalyst Competition
How to Compete When there are Colliding Platform Ecosystems
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