The First Rule of Platforms

Jeff Bezos understood the need to move quickly in 1995. The Internet was a land grab, and Bezos knew it. This is also known as first-mover advantage. His mantra: Get big fast. To be sure, it has served Amazon well.

Bezos was right.

In the Age of the Platform, it’s nearly impossible to play catch-up.

Contrast that with Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook was certainly not the first social network. (See MySpace, Friendster, and Classmates.com.) Zuck did not roll out Facebook to schools in 2005 willy-nilly. Rather, patiently waited until his company’s infrastructure could support more users. He cared about the user experience.

Zuck was also right.

This brings me to the first rule of platforms (hat tip to Fight Club):

You don’t need to be first, but you sure as hell can’t be last.

In a nutshell, this is the daunting problem that Microsoft, BlackBerry, Yahoo, and others face today. Make no mistake: there is no simple solution.

Brass tacks: In the Age of the Platform, it’s nearly impossible to play catch-up.

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