3 Key Factors To How Platform Thinking Transforms Business

In today’s digital economy, platforms are everywhere, reshaping not only industries but how we live, work and connect. We’ve all heard the familiar stories—how Airbnb turned hospitality on its head, Uber revolutionized transportation, and Amazon redefined retail. Social media giants like Facebook link billions of people, while niche platforms like OpenTable have simplified tasks like booking a dinner reservation. These examples have been discussed to death, yet they remain powerful illustrations of how platforms have embedded themselves into the fabric of our daily lives.

Stopping at these household names risks missing the bigger picture. Platforms aren’t just about matching drivers and riders or buyers and sellers—they’re about fundamentally altering the way value is created. In a nutshell, platforms can be defined as all those business models that require at least two interdependent sets of customers (as drivers and travelers in Uber) that generate network effects. When more drivers join Uber, the service becomes more attractive to riders, and the more riders join it, the more valuable it will be for drivers, generating a virtuous cycle. At their heart, platforms create value by enabling multi-sided connections that reinforce the whole system.

But platforms have even more untapped potential. Focusing solely on Amazon, Uber and Airbnb only scratches the surface. Platforms don’t just disrupt markets—they have the capacity to reimagine internal processes like R&D, HR, or training. They can drive sustainability, bringing new layers of value far beyond their original business models.

Let’s explore the deeper, more exciting ways platforms can transform businesses from within outside of the “usual suspects.”

Typically, platforms have been seen as engines of profit maximization. The goal has been to expand market share, capture user data, and turn those advantages into revenue streams. However, what if there is more to platforms than just financial gains? What if platforms have a pivotal role to play in promoting sustainability-driven innovation? Increasingly, businesses and thought leaders are recognizing that platforms can also be leveraged to address pressing social and environmental issues. By linking consumers, producers and service providers in innovative ways, platforms are uniquely positioned to foster sustainability, offering solutions to some of the world’s most complex challenges.

The Drivers of Sustainability-Driven Innovation Based on Platforms

Three key drivers make platforms particularly well-suited to foster sustainability-driven innovation: efficiency, scalability, and the utilization of idle assets. Together, these drivers enable platforms to address sustainability issues while maintaining their core functionality and profit motives.

First, efficiency is an inherent characteristic of platforms, which reduce friction in transactions and make processes more streamlined. Take OpenTable, for instance. The platform helps restaurants manage bookings, reducing no-shows and underutilization of dining space. At the same time, it provides diners with an easy way to find available tables, creating a win-win situation. By reducing inefficiencies and better utilizing resources, platforms like OpenTable enhance operational performance while indirectly contributing to sustainability by minimizing waste in service capacity.

Second, platforms offer unparalleled scalability. Once a platform is built, it can quickly scale to a global audience, leveraging its infrastructure and user base. Consider Airbnb’s meteoric rise. What began as a small platform to help people rent out extra rooms during a conference in San Francisco has become a global phenomenon. Airbnb enables users to monetize underutilized space, reducing the need for new hotel construction and promoting a more sustainable use of resources. By scaling globally, platforms like Airbnb can spread their sustainable practices quickly and efficiently.

Finally, platforms often capitalize on idle assets—resources that are otherwise underused or dormant. Uber, for instance, connects drivers with unused vehicles to passengers seeking transportation, efficiently tapping into existing assets without needing to create new infrastructure. By making use of resources already at hand, platforms like Uber can reduce environmental footprints associated with traditional models that would require producing or maintaining fleets of vehicles, leading to a more sustainable urban mobility solution.

How Platforms Enable Sustainability-Driven Innovation

Platforms can foster sustainability-driven innovation in three key ways: directly, indirectly through epiphany, and indirectly by design.

Directly: Platforms can directly contribute to sustainability by creating marketplaces or ecosystems that inherently promote environmental and social goals. Take Vinted as an example, a platform that facilitates the buying and selling of secondhand clothing. Vinted operates on a circular economy model, where users can give new life to old items, significantly reducing waste and promoting the reuse of goods. By enabling consumers to participate in a circular economy, Vinted simultaneously promotes sustainability and financial well-being, allowing users to both save money and reduce their environmental impact. Circular platforms like this reduce the need for new production, minimizing carbon emissions and resource consumption, all while creating a profitable business model.

Indirectly by epiphany: Platforms also promote sustainability through the unexpected discovery of value in data or services that were not originally designed for that purpose. Strava, a popular fitness app, exemplifies this approach. The platform collects vast amounts of data on its users’ running and cycling routes. However, this data has a latent value that goes beyond fitness tracking. Strava Metro, an offshoot of the main platform, compiles anonymized route data and provides it to municipalities and urban planners. This information can then be used to design better, safer and more efficient transportation infrastructure. What started as a fitness platform has, through the realization of its hidden potential, become a valuable tool for creating greener, more sustainable cities by reducing traffic congestion and encouraging active transportation.

Indirectly by design: Some platforms are designed from the outset with sustainability as a core objective, creating frameworks that encourage sustainable practices and contribute directly to broader societal goals. An excellent example of this is the Parkinson mPower platform, which was purposefully created to gather health data for medical research. This platform collects information from users with Parkinson’s disease to better understand the condition and support research into treatments. By fostering collaboration between patients, researchers and healthcare providers, mPower enables innovation in medical research that has the potential to improve health outcomes while addressing a significant societal challenge.

Platforms like mPower demonstrate how digital ecosystems can be built with intentional design features that drive sustainability, whether in the form of improving public health or addressing other complex issues such as climate change. These platforms often integrate data-sharing capabilities, fostering open collaboration and allowing multiple stakeholders to contribute to a shared goal.

Platforms are often viewed through the lens of profit maximization, but they are far more than just revenue-generating machines. The unique characteristics that define platforms—efficiency, scalability, and their ability to leverage idle assets—make them ideal engines for sustainability-driven innovation. Whether through direct contributions, the discovery of hidden value, or intentional design, platforms have the potential to address some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.

The examples of Vinted, Strava and mPower illustrate how platforms can go beyond merely making money. They are capable of driving systemic change, fostering collaboration, and encouraging sustainable practices across industries. As businesses continue to evolve in a world that increasingly values sustainability, platforms may emerge as pivotal tools for creating a more sustainable and equitable future. Whether it’s by enabling circular economies, promoting data-driven decision-making, or facilitating medical research, platforms stand at the forefront of the next wave of innovation—one that balances profitability with purpose.