Digital platforms are changing the rules of competition in the global economy. Until recently, it took Fortune 500 companies an average of 20 years to reach billion-dollar market valuations. Successful platforms now reach that milestone in an average of four years. In The Platform Paradox: How Digital Businesses Succeed in an Ever-Changing Global Marketplace, Wharton professor Mauro F. Guillén highlights a key incongruity in this new world. Most platforms considered to be successful have triumphed in only some, rather than all, parts of the world. There are very few truly global digital platforms. In more than three decades of studying multinational firms, Guillén has found they often misunderstand key aspects of what it takes to succeed globally, from culture and institutions to local competitive dynamics and pursuing markets in a logical sequence. Seeing multibillion-dollar companies like Amazon flounder in certain markets has led Guillén to research what it takes to create a successful global strategy. In The Platform Paradox, Guillén details: How the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitization and forced companies like Airbnb to pivot and adapt; How platforms like Tinder and Uber have used local advantages to grow rapidly in different countries; How traditional companies have transformed themselves into digital platforms, like Lego undertaking a digital revolution to emerge from bankruptcy and become the "Apple of toys"; and The possibilities and limits to global expansion, as illustrated by companies like Zoom and Skype. In The Platform Paradox, Guillén offers an integrated framework for these platforms to identify and implement a digital platform strategy on a truly global scale.

In The Platform Paradox, Wharton professor Mauro F. Guillén argues that many platforms misunderstand key aspects of what it takes to succeed globally, from culture and institutions to local competitive dynamics. He offers an integrated framework for digital platforms to identify and implement a strategy on a truly global scale.

A bold challenge to our obsession with efficiency—and a new understanding of how to benefit from the powerful potential of serendipity. Algorithms, multitasking, the sharing economy, life hacks: our culture can't get enough of efficiency. One of the great promises of the Internet and big data revolutions is the idea that we can improve the processes and routines of our work and personal lives to get more done in less time than we ever have before. There is no doubt that we're performing at higher levels and moving at unprecedented speed, but what if we're headed in the wrong direction? Melding the long-term history of technology with the latest headlines and findings of computer science and social science, The Efficiency Paradox questions our ingrained assumptions about efficiency, persuasively showing how relying on the algorithms of digital platforms can in fact lead to wasted efforts, missed opportunities, and, above all, an inability to break out of established patterns. Edward Tenner offers a smarter way of thinking about efficiency, revealing what we and our institutions, when equipped with an astute combination of artificial intelligence and trained intuition, can learn from the random and unexpected.

This article discusses two-sided platforms. Two-sided platforms have multiplied since the advent of the internet and the smartphone. Yet, courts have been struggling to understand how they work. This article discusses the Ohio v. American Express case. Credit card payment are a form of two-sided platforms with consumers on one side and merchant on the other. The Supreme Court made a number of mistakes in their analysis. But, in Pepper v. Apple, the Court has a new opportunity to address some of these issues. Specifically, this article argues that the Court can make a point that two-sided markets involve two types of purchasers and three antitrust markets. For antitrust purposes, both sides should be considered direct purchasers and the antitrust authorities should look competition for both sides and for transactions.

Software is more important than ever today and yet its commercial value is steadily declining. Microsoft, for instance, has seen its gross margins decrease for a decade, while startups and corporations alike are distributing free software that would have been worth millions a few years ago. Welcome to the software paradox. In this O’Reilly report, RedMonk’s Stephen O’Grady explains why the real money no longer lies in software, and what it means for companies that depend on that revenue. You’ll learn how this paradox came about and what your company can do in response. This book covers: Why it’s growing more difficult to sell software on a standalone basis How software has come full circle, from enabler to product and back again The roles that open source, software-as-a-service, and subscriptions play How software developers have become the new kingmakers Why Microsoft, Apple, and Google epitomize this transition How the paradox has affected other tech giants, such as Oracle and Salesforce.com Strategies your software firm can explore, including alternative revenue models

The most important book on antitrust ever written. It shows how antitrust suits adversely affect the consumer by encouraging a costly form of protection for inefficient and uncompetitive small businesses.