Matchmakers

The New Economics of Multisided Platforms

By: Richard Schmalensee, David S. Evans

Narrated by: John McLain

Many of the most dynamic public companies, from Alibaba to Facebook to Visa, and the most valuable start-ups, such as Airbnb and Uber, are matchmakers that connect one group of customers with another group of customers. Economists call matchmakers multisided platforms because they provide physical or virtual platforms for multiple groups to get together. Dating sites connect people with potential matches, for example, and ride-sharing apps do the same for drivers and riders. Although matchmakers have been around for millennia, they're becoming more and more popular - and profitable - due to dramatic advances in technology, and a lot of companies that have managed to crack the code of this business model have become today's power brokers.

Don't let the flashy successes fool you, though. Starting a matchmaker is one of the toughest business challenges, and almost everyone who tries to build one, fails.

In Matchmakers, David Evans and Richard Schmalensee, two economists who were among the first to analyze multisided platforms and discover their principles, and who've consulted for some of the most successful platform businesses in the world, explain how matchmakers work best in practice, why they do what they do, and how entrepreneurs can improve their chances for success.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, an investor, a consumer, or an executive, your future will involve more and more multisided platforms, and Matchmakers - rich with stories from platform winners and losers - is the one book you'll need in order to navigate this appealing but confusing world.

Cover design by Stephani Finks.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2016 David S. Evans and Richard Schmalensee (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Platforms of the future

Another great book on multisided platforms, lots of context and case histories.
I really enjoyed reading it, I strongly endorse it.

validating and informative

before reading we incurred some challenges. And had to do some mid course corrections. This book validated our decisions, and also provided insight and guidance on other issues and challenges we needed to address.

the author covered hit the nail on it's head

"read" the book in one day/night, very relevant to the project I'm working on now and had presented many new views which were overlooked this far. thank you

Suggested for any platform or community manager

This book has had a great influence on me and I have implemented many of these strategies to guide my development and admin teams. These concepts have also helped me clarify the direction of Automate America to our investors. Thank you Mr. McLain for content and producing it in audio format!

Not bad

Perhaps a little too much repetitive jargon and the narrator, while professional, was a little too much like a 60s radio announcer and while he was clearly not the author/expert, his tone came off as condescending. Good content.not easy to listen to. Like the professorial teacher you tune out. It’s a good idea for a white paper they turned into a book.