A digital platform is software that lets different groups of users interact and get things done, such as buying, selling or building apps. It has a stable core that one owner controls, and open interfaces that let outsiders join.
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Types of digital platform
- Transaction platforms: match buyers and sellers, or other groups, so they can trade.
- Innovation platforms: offer a technical core that outside firms build their own products on.
- Hybrid platforms: do both at once, such as an operating system with its own app store.
Key factors
- A stable core with open edges. The core changes slowly so outsiders can rely on it. New features and outside products plug in at the edges.
- Easy to join, run by the owner. Outsiders can take part with little negotiation, but one owner, or a defined group, sets the rules.
- Who owns it. A single owner can change the rules quickly. Platforms shared by several firms, or run by their users, decide more slowly.
- Reaching every group at once. A platform is worth little to one group until the others arrive, so launch plans have to recruit them together.
Examples
Mercado Libre. Mercado Libre connects buyers and sellers across Latin America. On the same core it added payments through Mercado Pago, its own delivery network and credit for sellers. In 2024 it served more than 100 million unique buyers, all on one set of accounts and data.
Deliveroo. Deliveroo’s app links restaurants, riders and customers, and Deliveroo writes the rules for all three, from fees to delivery zones. In 2025 DoorDash bought Deliveroo for about £2.9 billion, paying for the three-sided transaction platform Deliveroo had built.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a digital platform and a platform ecosystem?
The platform is the technical core and its interfaces. The platform ecosystem is that core plus all the outside developers, sellers and users who build on it or trade through it.
Is every website or app a digital platform?
No. An app that one company uses to sell its own products is a sales channel. It becomes a platform when outside parties can join and interact through it.
Are digital platforms regulated?
Increasingly. The EU Digital Markets Act lists ten core platform services, from search engines to operating systems, and since March 2024 the largest firms providing them have had to follow extra rules on fair access.
Why do digital platforms often end up with one or two winners?
Each extra user makes a platform more useful to the others, and users dislike learning several systems. Once one platform is clearly ahead, new users and partners tend to join it too.
Full guide: What is a platform?