Marketplace Design

We all know how quickly and rapidly marketplaces can grow. We have seen Airbnb, Uber, Amazon and so many other marketplaces where the supply side meets the demand side so seamlessly.

If you want to create your own marketplace [of say people who want to rent out their bikes (supply side) and people who want to hire bikes (demand)], how do you go about doing it? Remember – the supply side won’t come if you haven’t built the demand side, and the demand side people won’t come unless you’ve created the supply side. How do you break this chicken and egg conundrum, and launch your market place?

How do you make each interaction between the supply side and demand side delightful? How do you get users of your platform reach their “Aha!” moment?

If you want to apply Strategy frameworks such as the Porter’s model to 2-sided market places – then Who is your supplier, who is your customer? Questions arise. I have had the good fortune to work on building several marketplace platforms and launching them. Happy to share my thoughts if you are trying to build one.

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