Fostering digital platform innovation: From two to multi-sided platforms

Two-sided markets and digital platforms are becoming increasingly relevant in the modern scenario. Companies like Airbnb and Uber are inspiring many other firms in different fields that share their basic structure: they match two (or more) groups of customers. This research aims at exploring the innovation strategies companies such as these rely on to expand their basic structure towards more complex models. Being inspired by previous models in the field and considering the role that big data seems to play in these businesses, a first conceptual model is presented. Therefore, 100 companies-using mobile apps as the empirical setting-are explored in this research to understand the common behaviors concerning evolution. In the end, three strategies are presented: Supply (Side) Expansion, Transactional Advertising, and Data Trading. These strategies are further discussed to highlight two main directions of innovation-ecosystem innovation and data push innovation-which may be merged giving birth to multi-sided epiphanies. The paper contributes to the literature showing various strategies and their implication to foster innovation on two-sided platforms. Moreover, it shows possible ways to exploit the value embedded in the complex ecosystems of the relationships they create.