Digital platform (infrastructure)

For other uses, see web portal and computing platform.

A digital platform is a software-based online infrastructure that facilitates user interactions and transactions.

Digital platforms can act as data aggregators to help users navigate large amounts of information, as is the case with search engines; as matchmakers to enable transactions between users, as is the case with digital marketplaces; or as collaborative tools to support the development of new content, as is the case with online communities.[1] Digital platforms can also combine several of these features, such as when a social media platform enables both searching for information and matchmaking between users.[2]

Digital platforms can be more or less decentralized in their data architecture and can be governed based on more or less distributed decision-making.[3][4]

  1. ^ Parker G, Van Alstyne M, Choudary S (2016). Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393249132.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Cusumano M, Gawer A, Yoffie D (2019). The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power. Harper Business. ISBN 978-0062896322.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Baran, Paul (1964). "On distributed communications". RAND Corporation. RM3420PR.
  4. ^ Vergne, JP (2020). "Decentralized vs. Distributed Organization: Blockchain, Machine Learning and the Future of the Digital Platform". Organization Theory. 1 (4): 2631787720977052. doi:10.1177/2631787720977052. ISSN 2631-7877. S2CID 229449495.