A two-sided market facilitates interactions between multiple interdependent groups of customers. The value of the platform increases as more groups or as more individual members of each group are using it. The two sides usually come from disparate groups, e.g., businesses and private interest groups.
How they do it: YouTube’s platform features a set of key stakeholders: Their users, creators, rights holders of music videos and copyrighted content, and advertisers. Reconciliating stakeholder needs in this ecosystem or multi-sided market is a key challenge for YouTube.
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How they do it: AWS has a markeplace for cloud computing applications. In a digital catalag with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors, users can find software to test, buy and deploy on AWS.
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How they do it: JCDecaux is working with public transport authorities or government entities to furnish a city’s streets and public spaces with furnishings (e.g. public benches) in return for obtaining advertising rights at these locations. These advertising spaces are then marketed to advertisers who are willing to pay for prime locations and transit media opportunities, while the respective city benefits from advertising design innovations and free or reduced-cost public services.
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How they do it: In the Amazon Kindle store, publishers, authors and other rights-owners can sell their content to Kindle users. Hence, Amazon is just providing the marketplace but does not have to provide the content itself.
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How they do it: Google’s search engine operates as a two-sided market, connecting websites and users who search for websites. Google does not provide any content but utilizes data to make sure that users with a specific search query find the website which can best answer their need / search. It also utilizes the data to allow website owners to target the user’s they want to attract on their websites.
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