Matchmakers

The New Economics of Multisided Platforms

By: Richard Schmalensee, David S. Evans

Narrated by: John McLain

Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Many of the most dynamic public companies, from Alibaba to Facebook to Visa, and the most valuable start-ups, such as Airbnb and Uber, are matchmakers that connect one group of customers with another group of customers. Economists call matchmakers multisided platforms because they provide physical or virtual platforms for multiple groups to get together. Dating sites connect people with potential matches, for example, and ride-sharing apps do the same for drivers and riders. Although matchmakers have been around for millennia, they're becoming more and more popular - and profitable - due to dramatic advances in technology, and a lot of companies that have managed to crack the code of this business model have become today's power brokers.

Don't let the flashy successes fool you, though. Starting a matchmaker is one of the toughest business challenges, and almost everyone who tries to build one, fails.

In Matchmakers, David Evans and Richard Schmalensee, two economists who were among the first to analyze multisided platforms and discover their principles, and who've consulted for some of the most successful platform businesses in the world, explain how matchmakers work best in practice, why they do what they do, and how entrepreneurs can improve their chances for success.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, an investor, a consumer, or an executive, your future will involve more and more multisided platforms, and Matchmakers - rich with stories from platform winners and losers - is the one book you'll need in order to navigate this appealing but confusing world.

Cover design by Stephani Finks.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2016 David S. Evans and Richard Schmalensee (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Platforms of the future

Another great book on multisided platforms, lots of context and case histories.
I really enjoyed reading it, I strongly endorse it.

validating and informative

before reading we incurred some challenges. And had to do some mid course corrections. This book validated our decisions, and also provided insight and guidance on other issues and challenges we needed to address.

the author covered hit the nail on it's head

"read" the book in one day/night, very relevant to the project I'm working on now and had presented many new views which were overlooked this far. thank you

Suggested for any platform or community manager

This book has had a great influence on me and I have implemented many of these strategies to guide my development and admin teams. These concepts have also helped me clarify the direction of Automate America to our investors. Thank you Mr. McLain for content and producing it in audio format!

Not bad

Perhaps a little too much repetitive jargon and the narrator, while professional, was a little too much like a 60s radio announcer and while he was clearly not the author/expert, his tone came off as condescending. Good content.not easy to listen to. Like the professorial teacher you tune out. It’s a good idea for a white paper they turned into a book.

Great complement to Platform Revolution

I found Matchmakers to be a great compliment to Platform Revolution -- raising a number of distinct concepts and analogies that I found insightful and useful.

Good analysis of marketplaces

Not as good as other books in getting in behind the facade of how multi sided platforms take off, such as platform revolution or the house that jack built.
Reads more like a text book.
Chapter on subsidies was good.

Great for the Technologically Challenged

If you are one of those people who just do not get technology, but are smart enough to know you need to change that, then this is the PERFECT book for you. The author goes to great lengths to explain what is "new" about platforms and why you should be much more familiar with the concept than you might feel.

This book is also a good tool to help computer engineers like me make my business users better technology consumers.

Book about matchmakers

Where does Matchmakers rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Somewhere in the middle, not my favorite book, but there is something to think about.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Thinking how many of great business work, what value they create and how t use some part of it in my business. Many of today biggest businesses are matchmakers. Before reading this book, I had not thought about them in way like this.

Any additional comments?

Some things to think about, how modern economics work. Many great real life examples and comparisons.Could be great reference for study projects. At first wasn't fan of narrator, but after some time it was really good, great for this book.

Awsome

Awsome book and good narration.
The book has relevant content too. I enjoyed going through the book at my own pace and leveraged the convenience of the audio book and Audible.