This week the topic is diffusion and social influences. Personally, after reading all the literature from the week, I find platforms with two-sided markets is a very interesting topic. Thus, I looked into this topic and came up with two cases to discuss as well.

First of all, a platform with two-sided markets means that this platform provides a support that facilitates interactions among two sides that it serves or in another word, this platform enables two sided markets to interact with each other. Moreover, nowadays, a multi-sided platform (MSP) is becoming even more popular. Based on the name it is not hard to realize the definition of a MSP which is a platform as providing a support that facilitates interactions among two or more sides that it serves. One example is a platform which is called CareerProfessor. CareerProfessor is an app with different questions which contain different topics such as business cultures, social rituals and job hunting skills etc. The platform aims at connecting students or alumnus with their universities. In the other word, universities can use this app to collect data from their students and alumnus in order to build up a community inside universities. How it works is that only one-sided market needs to pay the services, which is universities in the case. While students do not need to pay any fees. Moreover, only if a university buy the licenses and sending out invitations to their students, then students can have access to the app in the app store. The other example is Adams, a traditional platforms connecting job seekers and companies in the Netherlands. How Adams works is that as a job seeker, it is free to register as a member and they will help them find a suitable position but without any promises. While later if the agency finds a job for a client, that person can either sign the contract with the agency or a company, but no matter in which way, the agency will get part of the salaries as their commission fees.

There are quite some similarities between these two platforms, however, they do use different marketing strategies and approaches to access the markets. In general, I think CareerProfessor has more potentiality to improve its business than Adams, since CareerProfessor as a platform may attract more parties to join. Not only has the app originally concerned about universities and students or alumnus, but also companies may also show more interested in the students graduating from that university due to a good university reputation and high employabilities of its students. Then in a long term, CareerProfessor can develop a multiplatform bundle to include universities, students, alumnus and companies, which definitely will help the company to improve its competitive abilities compared to Adams.

Reference

About Adams Multilingual Recruitment. (n.d.). Retrieved October 8, 2014, from http://www.adamsrecruitment.com/about-us/about-adams.html

Economides, N., & Tåg, J. (2012). Network neutrality on the Internet: A two-sided market analysis. Information Economics and Policy, 24, 91-104. Retrieved from http://www.stern.nyu.edu/networks/Economides_Tag_Net_Neutrality.pdf

Eisenmann, T., Parker, G., and Van Alstyne, M.W. 2006. Strategies for Two-Sided Markets. Harvard Business Review 84(10) 92-101. Retrieved from http://bblp.eur.nl/bbcswebdav/pid-377831-dt-content-rid-3055341_1/courses/BKBMIN030-14/hyatt_sloan08_oh-so-practical%20magic%20of%20open%20source%20innovation.pdf

Hagiu, A., & Wright, J. (2011). Multi-sided Platforms. Harvard Business School. Working Paper. Retrieved from http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication Files/12-024.pdf

Hagiu, A. (2007). Multi-sided Platforms: From microfoundations to design and expansion strategies. Harvard Business School. Retrieved from http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication Files/07-094.pdf

Klein, B. (2011). The Microsoft Case: What can a dominant firm do to defend its market position? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15(2), 45-62. Retrieved from http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.15.2.45

Li, T., Sprengers, D., and van Dalen, J. 2013. Leveraging public sentiment to beat the market. Working Paper. Retrieved from http://bblp.eur.nl/bbcswebdav/pid-377831-dt-content-rid-3055333_1/courses/BKBMIN030-14/wise12_submission.pdf

Peer Pressure and Consumer Behavior. (n.d.). Retrieved October 8, 2014, from http://www.123helpme.com/peer-pressure-and-consumer-behavior-view.asp?id=166811

Rochet, J., & Tirole, J. (2003). Platform competition in two-sided markets. European Economic Association. Retrieved from http://www.rchss.sinica.edu.tw/cibs/pdf/RochetTirole3.pdf

What is CareerProfessor. (2014). Retrieved October 8, 2014, from http://www.careerprofessor.works/about/

Apple just released its new versions of iPhone – as known as iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It should be an exciting moment for all the Apple fans to upgrade their iPhones! However, this time, a controversial issue seems to become bigger and bigger that iPhone 6 Plus is easy to bend?! On Wednesday, owners of iPhone 6 Plus took to social media to complain that iPhone 6 Plus unexpectedly bent when they put their phones in their pockets. Afterwards, the mass show an extremely high attention on this topic, especially on social media level. Not only the regular audience, who may the current users of iPhone 6 Plus or potential buyers of the phone show their concerns on the iPhone 6 Plus bendgate issue, but also many competitors of Apple and popular websites try to make fun of the product in a very sarcastic way on social media. Personally, I found the most interesting case is how 9GAG, which is a famous social media website, reacts to the issue. Going to 9GAG Facebook page, since this Wednesday, which is 24^th of September, there have been around 10 posts regarding to this bendgate issue. In 2 days, half of the 9GAG posts are related with the iPhone 6 Plus bendgate issue. Moreover, LG, Nokia and Samsung are also involved in the topic discussions. LG even posts a picture to respond the issue in a very funny way.

Afterwards, I am very curious about how Apple reacts to such an issue after reviewing so many anti-voices. Therefore, I went to Apple’s official page to check it out. Surprisingly, the website does not have any official declarations on the page. The only place you can find out the issue is under the SUPPORT column that some users made a post in the community and anyone can contribute to the answers. However, it is really hard to find a very authentic answer responding to the topic. Apart from Apple Website, there are actually quite a lot of blogs talking about the issue. They quoted some statements from Apple’s official responses, while those ‘statements’ also come from other blogs’ contents. So it is a bit weird for me that Apple hasn’t offer any official statements from its own channel yet. Also as everyone knows that Apple does not really own any official social media channels. It is maybe a tricky part for Apple to deal with this situation. In the most blogs, the opinions on the iPhone 6 Plus bendgate issue are not very positive. Regarding from the blog post of Forbes recently, the title of the article is ‘Apple responds to the iPhone 6 bendgate but questions remains’. The other blog post from 9to5Mac even indicates that 30% of readers are concerned about this bendgate issue based on their own poll results.

I think Apple really needs to come up with good social media strategies to subside the issue, but on the other hand, what would you do if you are market risk manager of Apple?

In the end, I want to share some heated posts on 9GAG with you. 😀

Reference：

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/09/25/apple-does-not-say-sorry-over-bendgate/

http://online.wsj.com/articles/apple-defends-against-complaints-of-bending-iphones-1411668618

http://www.zdnet.com/apple-to-replace-bent-iphone-6-plus-models-7000034040/

Apple responds to iPhone 6 Bendgate controversy, says only 9 customers have complained

https://twitter.com/CNBCtech

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102034087

Apple says some bent iPhone 6/Plus phones will be replaced under warranty