Platform Economy

A business model that creates value by facilitating exchanges between two or more interdependent user groups — typically producers and consumers — through a digital platform. Platform businesses generate powerful network effects and intangible assets including user data, algorithmic matching capabilities, and brand trust.

An economic model in which businesses generate recurring revenue by providing ongoing access to products or services rather than one-time sales. The subscription economy elevates the importance of intangible assets such as customer relationships, brand trust, and product stickiness, which together determine retention and lifetime value.

An economic system in which growth and value creation are driven primarily by the production, distribution, and application of knowledge and information rather than physical goods. In the knowledge economy, intangible assets — including human capital, software, data, and intellectual property — constitute the majority of enterprise and national wealth.

The ecosystem of business models, partnerships, and revenue streams enabled by application programming interfaces that allow software systems to communicate and share data. APIs enable companies to monetise their data and functionality, create platform ecosystems, and embed services into third-party applications.

A software system that creates a unified, persistent customer database accessible to other systems by collecting and integrating customer data from multiple sources — including CRM, website analytics, email, social media, transactions, and customer service interactions. CDPs resolve customer identities across channels and devices to build comprehensive individual profiles, enabling personalised marketing, customer journey orchestration, and advanced segmentation.

The initial acquisition made by a private equity fund in a particular sector or sub-sector, intended to serve as the foundation for a buy-and-build strategy through subsequent add-on acquisitions. Platform companies are typically larger, more established businesses with strong management teams, scalable infrastructure, and a proven operating model.

The process of estimating the economic value of a company's active user community, considering metrics such as engagement levels, conversion rates, lifetime value, and network effects. User base valuation is central to the assessment of platform businesses and social media companies, where the user community itself is the primary intangible asset.

An umbrella term for the broad range of services delivered over the internet on a subscription basis, encompassing Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, and numerous specialised variants. XaaS business models convert capital expenditure into operating expenditure for customers and derive the majority of their enterprise value from intangible assets including recurring customer relationships, proprietary platforms, and data.