Classic Platform Business Model Revenue Still a Science Project for Most Big Connectivity and Cloud Computing Firms

Network as a service, computing, storage or infrastructure as a service might easily be confused with a platform business model. After all, platform business models tend to involve use of remote or cloud computing, an application for ordering, provisioning, payments and customer service. So do many XaaS offerings. 

XaaS can provide value including reduced cost; greater agility and security that is maintained at industry leading levels. Sometimes XaaS also can provide advantages in terms of innovation or potential customer scale. 

But the difference in business models is not “buy versus build” or “virtualized” access, scale or innovation but the mechanism by which revenue is earned. A virtualized service offered by a “pipeline” business model provider is still an example of a traditional pipeline model: the seller creates the service and sells it to the customer. 

Amazon Web Services computing and storage functions, for example, are “sold as a service,” but that does not make those AWS products part of a platform business model. The Amazon Web Services Marketplace, on the other hand, is an example of a platform business model.

The marketplace supports transactions between third-party sellers to Amazon customers where Amazon earns a commission on each sale.

The general observation is that, at this point, though many firms are trying to add platform business model operations, those operations remain at a low level, compared to traditional pipeline operations. 

Classically, a platform earns revenue by earning a commission for arranging a match between buyer and seller. AT&T’s online marketplace, for example, allows third parties to offer internet of things products available for purchase from AT&T customers. 

AT&T also once hosted its own advertising platform Xander, which was sold to Microsoft. It allowed firms to place advertising on AT&T’s websites and apps. 

So far, revenue contributions have been small enough not to identify as distinct revenue streams. 

Likewise, Verizon once operated Verizon Media that placed ads on Verizon content assets, but that business was sold to Apollo Funds.

Some might consider the use of application programming interfaces evidence that a platform business model is in operation, but that is incorrect. APIs might be used to support a platform business model, but use of APIs, in and of itself, does not change the business model. 

APIs, though, are often a capability exploited by business model platforms, to connect users of the platform; to allow third-party developers to contribute value; to collect user data or to create revenue by charging fees for use of the APIs.

The GSMA Open Gateway initiative supporting APIs usable across networks supports a traditional pipeline model, where the firms create, support and sell their products directly to customers. 

So at least so far, few tier-one connectivity providers have shifted a significant portion of their operations to platform business models, or made it the key strategic direction. Recent asset dispositions by AT&T and Verizon suggest that approach remains experimental and non-core.