The Platform Stack #5

Issue #5

Arun Singh Shekhawat

Jul 6, 2022

Crypto-Enabled Marketplaces How token incentives and crypto ecosystems can be very powerful tools for entrepreneurs building marketplaces - Fabrice Grinda and Matias Barbero
Baby Pics, Life Lessons, and Obits: What Happened to LinkedIn Why users are posting more personal content on a professional platform - Josh Greenblat
How Business Ecosystems Rise (and Often Fall) Ecosystems are not easy to build or sustain, but new research identifies three critical windows in their life cycle and the corresponding actions that lead to success at each stage - Martin Reeves, Hen Lotan, Julien Legrand, and Michael G. Jacobides
Digital platforms regulation: An innovation-centric view of the EU’s Digital Markets Act “The business model agnostic approach to digital platforms taken in the DMA would miss out on the critical role those digital platforms play for the creation of value.” - Carmelo Cennamo, Tobias Kretschmer, Panos Constantinides, Cristina Alaimo, Juan Santaló
Are N.F.T.s All Scams? Some of them are. With others, it’s more complicated (and more promising). We try to get past the Bored Apes and the ripoffs to see if we can find art on the blockchain.(Part 2 of “What Can Blockchain Do for You?“) - 🎧 Freakonomics
Shopify's Harley Finkelstein: “There’s room for us and Amazon” The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, to talk about the market mayhem, Shopify coming out of the shadows, how it got started, how Amazon have up on the online stores business, getting into delivery, the renewed Amazon threat, the future of direct-to-consumer commerce, how Apple has upended online ads, and the best and worst of going fully remote. - 🎧 Danny in the valley
Open Digital Platforms to Spur Innovation A conversation about how Haier Group capitalizes on the resources and expertise of its ecosystem. 🎧 Harvard Business Review
Pair with - How to turn a Supply Chain Platform into an Innovation Engine

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Snapchat adds paid subscription with more features for power users ( The Verge)
Facebook Groups are being revamped to look like Discord (The Verge)
Siemens launches Siemens Xcelerator – an open digital business platform to accelerate digital transformation (Press release - Siemens)
Klarna in Talks to Raise Fresh Cash at Slashed $6.5 Billion Valuation (The Wall Street Journal)
Solana's developers unveil web3-focused mobile phone ( The Block)
Chinese short-video market in brutal shakeout as Tencent, Bilibili close smaller apps amid tougher condition (South China Morning Post)
Inside Didi’s $60 Billion Crash That Changed China Tech Forever (Yahoo)
TikTok abandons ecommerce expansion in Europe and US (🔒 Financial Times)
As Silicon Valley fantasizes about Web3, India leaps ahead on payments (Yahoo)

DEALS

Deal size > $10m; includes platform companies only; non-exhaustive list

Funding announcements 28 June - 4 July, 2022

ZigBang raised $77 M / Series Unknown from Shinhan Venture Investment
Tomorrow Health raises $60M / Series B led by Bond, to get more payers on its home care coordination platform
TaskHuman raised $20 M / Series B from Gaingels and 11 other investors
Zigazoo, a kid-safe social network that recently launched a non-fungible token (NFT) collection, has raised $17 million in a Series A funding round led by Liberty City Ventures.
Sidekicker, a leading on-demand staffing platform in Australia and New Zealand has raised A20 M / Series Unknown from SEEK
Bykea, a Karachi-based mobility super app known for its bike-sharing and on-demand delivery services, raised $10 million / Series C in funding from existing investors Prosus Ventures, Middle East Venture Partners, Sarmayacar, Tharros, and Ithaca Capital.