“Everywhere there can be a platform there will be a platform”

This may be true, but all growth and success will not be equal. Less than 20% of platforms succeed.

 Today 7 of the worlds most admired brands are digital platforms. Everyone wants to be the next Amazon, Apple, Ant Financial, WeChat or Netflix in their industry.

 Taking an industry platform lead in creating and capturing value can transform the industry operating model and the Real Estate industry will be no different. Platforms however require long-term vision and patience together with a clear definition of the future value drivers for customers. These are challenging for most incumbents as they are focused on shorter-term problem solving, struggling to even define their value differentiation for today and using apps to catch-up with the competition or to improve the existing offering.  Successful platforms are created when the company can define that long-term value creation and use technology, data and partnerships to scale it. This will also make it difficult for the competition to follow. It requires a culture change in the organisation, innovation and a different approach to measurement of transformation than traditional financial KPI’s.

 There are many opportunities in Real Estate where a platform strategy can scale value, create new revenue pools and new experiences. The Jedis in other industries are identifying these, like Google “owning” the home experience, Airbnb “owning” the vacation experience.... are these missed opportunities for the Real Estate industry or just the start of a Real Estate platform economy?