1 - #itb8: Platform Before Product

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Our students live in a world of strong platforms. There may be competition but when needing a product or service, one name comes usually first into the mind of every customer.
May it be Amazon for shopping, AirBnB for finding accommodation or Uber for a taxi-service.
It is important, to recognize the main principle behind it: It is the „Winner Takes It All“ - principle. When a platform in the internet reaches a certain popularity in its niche, it is not simply more successful than it competitors. It outperforms than vastly.

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Another interesting fact is, that some platforms do not offer the services or product and just help the customer and the provider. Uber for example does not own a single car.
That might be a motivation for our students to start an own venture one day. It definitely should encourage them to look further than the most known webpage.
The platform-model is not exactly new and not restricted to the digital world. There have been matchmakers in the ancient Greece and a tulip exchange in the Netherlands. The digitization took this model, spread it and made it so important.

Do you want to know, what #itb8 stands for? Take a look at this announcement.