Idle Asset Hunters—The Secret of Multi-sided Platforms

Since the dot-com revolution in the early 2000s, traditional, vertically integrated firms have attempted to innovate using multi-sided digital platforms, matching customer and supplier groups to resolve the needs of both. These firms’ underlying logic has disrupted traditional business models, enabling them to introduce new and counterintuitive value creation, delivery, and capture configurations. Using Uber and Airbnb, two prominent cases of multi-sided platforms, we present an overview of the dynamics governing value mechanisms within a platform through the theoretical lens of the business model. Multi-sided business models undergo three evolutionary phases: they solve the market friction; they exploit the critical mass they develop; and they unveil and capture new value derived from cocreation based on data. Our study reveals how successful platform providers act as idle asset hunters that can identify and leverage untapped assets. We propose a framework that helps companies move from a two-sided to a multi-sided platform.