平臺公司正從各方面攪亂傳統商業世界的版圖，不只是一些全球大公司地位被取代，而且還在改變價值創造、消費者行為等一些習以為常的業務流程，改變主要行業的結構。

固守舊模式的傳統公司若想與平臺公司對抗，首先需要重估自身商業模式的價值。這些公司得徹底審查在推廣、銷售、送貨以及客戶服務等多方面的支出，仔細想想在無縫連接日益普遍的當今世界里，哪些支出可以減少，哪些可以剔除。此外，還應該研究下有業務交流的個人和公司，找出維護關系的新方式以創造新價值。

在這個平臺統治的世界里，耐克無疑是想盡辦法求生存、找發展而且表現最優異的公司之一。有些舉措看起來平談無奇，其實不然。

Platform businesses are disrupting the traditional business landscape in a number of ways—not only by displacing some of the world’s biggest firms, but also by transforming familiar business processes like value creation and consumer behavior and altering the structure of major industries.

And if they hope to fight the forces of platform disruption, entrenched companies need to reevaluate their business models. They’ll need to scrutinize what they spend on marketing, sales, product delivery, and customer service and imagine how those costs might be reduced or eliminated in a more seamlessly connected world. They’ll need to examine the individuals and organizations they interact with, and envision new ways of networking them to create new forms of value.

Nike has proven to be one of the most intelligent incumbent companies seeking new ways to survive and thrive in the world of platforms. Some of the competitive steps they’ve taken may seem obvious. They aren’t.

從傳統上來說，耐克之類做渠道業務的公司要擴張無非有兩種方式。一種是縱向整合，就是垂直拓展上下游渠道的長度，比如，收購上游供應商或是下游經銷商。另外一種則是擴充渠道自身的容量，目的是讓渠道能輸送更多價值。如果消費品公司通過推出新產品或新品牌推動增長，就是在做橫向整合。

2012年1月，耐克收購了一家名為FuelBand、專做可穿戴設備的公司，其產品可以追蹤用戶的健身活動，包括計步、能量消耗等。和許多其他公司一樣，耐克也一直在開發應用，確切點說是與運動和健康相關的應用。看起來有點像傳統產品線的延伸，但耐克其實是在測試新的業務模式，如果成功就能帶來新增長，這也是蘋果等公司率先嘗試的平臺業務模式。

蘋果在過去十年里實現高速增長，一部分原因就是通過云服務連接各個產品和服務。用戶可以通過iTunes和iCloud同步內容和數據，因而，比起擁有其他品牌，比如索尼或日立多個產品，用戶會覺得擁有多個蘋果產品更有價值，也更實用。在令多個產品和服務協同工作方面，數據是最關鍵的整體黏合劑。

云服務也推動了新的增長方式。通過數據讓多個產品和服務連接和互動起來后，渠道公司開始向平臺轉化，一方面創造了新價值，另一方面也鼓勵用戶多參與互動。

耐克旗下配備FuelBand設備的跑鞋可以與手機移動應用實時互動，向用戶反饋信息和建議，提醒運動表現、鍛煉計劃以及健康目標等。耐克不再像傳統運動公司一樣單純賣裝備，而是利用搜集的數據打造用戶生態圈。再過段時間，耐克就能根據積累的數據改進裝備提高用戶體驗，還能將用戶凝聚起來，促進用戶之間互動。

運動裝備公司安德瑪（Under Armour ）也在積極行動，打造自己的健身用戶生態圈。2013年11月，安德瑪收購了業內領先的健身訓練追蹤平臺MapMyFitness。2015年2月，安德瑪又收購了兩家健身平臺——專門研究營養的MyFitnessPal和主要服務歐洲客戶的“移動私教”Endomondo。三家公司的收購總價高達7.1億美元。一位分析師評論說：“令人震驚的是被收購的三家公司沒有一家是真正做設備的公司。所有人的關注點都在平臺和數據上，最重要的其實是用戶。”這三筆收購號稱涉及1.3億平臺用戶。安德瑪也跟耐克一樣，認為行業的發展前景就是基于平臺的業務，而且決心要當行業顛覆者。

那么，有產品和服務就能成為平臺業務的基礎么？可以測試下：如果公司可以用信息或用戶社區為產品提供附加值，就有潛力打造出切實可行的平臺。對很多公司來說，這是個巨大的機會。

想想已有126年歷史的味好美（McCormick Foods），公司主要產品為香草、香料和調味品。味好美一直沿著傳統發展戰略前進，直到2010年迎來改變。

味好美的業務觸角已然伸到調味品領域的各個角落，在供應鏈上下游的地位也很穩固，找不到什么可以進一步增長的方式了。首席信息官杰瑞?沃爾夫聽說過耐克打造平臺的舉措，味好美能不能也嘗試下呢？

沃爾夫去紐約找了業內領先的設計公司R/GA合伙人巴里?瓦克斯曼，他也正是協助耐克設計平臺戰略的人。兩人想出個主意，就是用食譜和味覺檔案打造以食物為基礎的平臺。沃爾夫和瓦克斯曼通過味好美的味覺實驗室提煉出36種典型味道——例如薄荷味、柑橘味、花香、大蒜味、肉香等——這些味道組合起來就可以描述幾乎所有食譜。口味系統可以根據個人愛好預測用戶可能愿意品嘗的新食譜。

此外，在味好美社區平臺上，用戶還可以修改食譜，上傳更新的版本，嘗試無數的新口味，還能預測食物流行的新趨勢，平臺匯集的信息不僅對用戶有用，對雜貨店經理、食品生產商以及餐館老板都會有所幫助。

如今，利用平臺的能力已經不再局限于互聯網新貴，傳統企業的反應也不再只是防守反擊，或是在本行業被強占殆盡后去跟風建個往往以失敗收場的平臺。

事實上，傳統行業中的領軍者一旦理解了新商業模式，就可以著手搭建面向未來的新平臺，過程中不僅可以撬動存量資產，還能加強壯大實力。（財富中文網）

本文節選自《平臺革命：緊密聯系的市場如何推動經濟轉型——你如何能從中分一杯羹》，作者為Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary.版權屬于Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary.本文已或出版商W. W. Norton & Company授權發布，版權所有。

譯者：Pessy

校對：詹妮

Pipeline businesses like Nikehave traditionally scaled in one of two ways. Some expand by vertical integration, owning and integrating a greater length of the value-creation-and-delivery pipeline—for example, buying upstream suppliers or downstream distributors. Others expand by widening the pipeline to push more value through it. When consumer goods companies grow by creating new products and brands, it’s an example of horizontal integration.

In January 2012, Nike brought out a wearable technology device, the FuelBand, to track user fitness activities, including steps walked and calories burned. Like many other companies, Nike has also been developing apps—in this case, apps related to sports and fitness. While these might seem like traditional product-line extensions, Nike is actually testing an approach that, if successful, will lead to a new form of growth—one pioneered by platform businesses like Apple.

Over the last decade, Apple has grown in part by connecting its products and services to one another in the cloud. The ability to sync contents and data over iTunes and iCloud makes the ownership of multiple Apple products particularly valuable, and much more useful than, say, the ownership of multiple products from Sony or Toshiba. Data acts as an integration glue to make all these products and services perform in concert.

This leads to a new form of growth. When multiple products and services connect and interact using data, pipelines can start behaving like platforms, producing new forms of value and encouraging users to engage in more interactions.

Nike’s FuelBand-connected shoes and mobile apps they constantly interact, providing users with information and advice about their athletic performance, their fitness regime, and their health goals. Unlike a traditional sporting goods company, Nike is building an ecosystem of users using the data it captures about them. Over time, it can leverage this data to create more relevant experiences for its users and connect them with one another to enable valuable interactions.

Under Armourhas been moving quickly to build its own fitness ecosystem. In November 2013, it purchased MapMyFitness, a leading workout and exercise tracking platform. In February 2015, it followed up by buying two more fitness platforms—MyFitnessPal, which focuses on nutrition, and Endomondo, a “trainer in your pocket” that mainly serves consumers in Europe. The total purchase price for the three companies: a hefty $710 million. “What’s really astounding,” one analyst commented, “is that none of the companies acquired make actual devices. Instead, everything is about platform and data. And—more importantly—users.” The three acquisitions boast 130 million platform users. Like Nike, Under Armour sees that the future of its industry is platform-based, and it is determined to be a disruptor.

Can any product or service become the basis of a platform business? Here’s the test: If the firm can use either information or community to add value to what it sells, then there is potential for creating a viable platform. This creates huge opportunities for a lot of firms.

Consider McCormick Foods, a 126-year-old company that sells herbs, spices, and condiments. By 2010, the company’s traditional growth strategies had run their course.

McCormickhad already expanded into a full range of food seasonings and established a foothold up and down its supply chain. It was running out of growth options. CIO Jerry Wolfe heard about Nike’s move into platform-building. Could McCormick do the same?

Wolfe reached out to Barry Wacksman, a partner at R/GA, a leading New York design firm that had helped Nike design its platform. Together, they hit on the idea of using recipes and taste profiles to build a food-based platform. Wolfe and Wacksman used McCormick’s taste laboratories to distill three dozen flavor archetypes— such as minty, citrus, floral, garlicky, meaty—that can be used to describe almost any recipe. Based on personal preferences, the system can predict what new recipes an individual is likely to savor. And the McCormick platform community can modify recipes and upload the new versions, creating ever-expanding flavor options and helping to identify new food trends, generating information that’s useful not only to the platform’s users but also to managers of grocery stores, food manufacturers, and restaurateurs.

The ability to leverage platforms is no longer restricted to Internet upstarts. Nor is the incumbent’s response restricted to merely attempting to fight back, or trying, usually in vain, to build a copycat platform after their industry has been colonized.

The leaders of incumbent companies who understand the new business model can begin building tomorrow’s platforms in a way that not only leverages their existing assets, but strengthens and reinforces them.

Excerpted from Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy—And How to Make Them Work for You by Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary. Copyright 2016 by Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary. With permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.