The Coming Of A Platform Revolution

The healthcare delivery systems of today will increasingly leverage the platform and resources that they have to become a hub for both health and healthcare in the future

- Raelene Kambli

In November 2018, Forbes published their annual study on the world’s most valuable brands. Coming as no surprise, Apple topped the list of branding behemoth for the eighth time, gathering an eye-watering brand value of $182.8 billion—up by 8 per cent from the previous year— followed by Google at $132.1 billion, Microsoft at $104.9 billion, Facebook at $94.8 billion and Amazon at $70.9 billion.

So what's the trump card that allows these tech giants to have such an authoritative presence in the mind of the modern consumer?

Is it because of the perceived value, the high quality products, the fantastic services and more that these companies offer?

Yes, all these factors contribute to their riding success but there is certainly something more to it.

It is called the Platform.

Take Apple for example. Apple's platform has been one of the biggest factor fueling a faster rate of revenue growth for the company than all of its hardware segments combined. Its platform connects the iOS ecosystem to various devices and aims to create the best platform experience for its customers. So each new Apple product you buy improves the experience on all the other Apple products you already own – particularly the iPhone.

For instance, both the iPad and the MacBook get even better connected if you already have an iPhone, since the iOS platform connects these three devices and you get the ability to sync texts and send photos across the devices.

Likewise, companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook too leverage the new tech paradigm and earn ginormous value through their respective platforms. These tech companies use their platforms to not only dominate the market share for their businesses, but their platforms also gives a new competitive advantage- a strong reason to build perceived value and boost the immense brand loyalty that drives their success stories.