Platforms and Power (with Hamilton Helmer and Chenyi Shi)
Apr 6, 2022
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Hamilton Helmer, a prominent strategy thinker and author of "Seven Powers," teams up with his colleague Chenyi Shi from Strategy Capital to dive deep into platform businesses. They discuss the 'Seven Powers' framework and its relevance to understanding market dynamics. The conversation explores platform power economics using Uber as a case study, highlighting customer loyalty and user preferences. They also dissect YouTube's competitive edge, emphasizing its rich content library and user experience, all while navigating the balance between growth and profitability.
Pricing strategies should carefully balance between extracting maximum value from the ecosystem and leaving some surplus on the table.
Differentiating between product-market fit and power is vital for maximizing enterprise value and maintaining a competitive advantage.
To increase profitability and leverage power, companies can focus on maximizing their surplus leader margin by charging a price higher than competitors while maintaining a competitive position.
Deep dives
Power and Pricing Strategies: Extractive or Surplus Leader Margin?
When considering pricing strategies and maximizing enterprise value, it's important to weigh the balance between being maximumly extractive to the ecosystem or leaving some surplus on the table. Each company will have a unique approach based on their specific circumstances. In the case of TSMC, their tactical decision to give up current profits and invest more in the future is driven by their scale economies, their ability to capture differential returns, and the unique characteristics of the semiconductor industry. By building customer loyalty and ensuring a clear advantage in technology, TSMC can align their pricing with their long-term strategic goals.
Recognizing the Difference Between Product-Market Fit and Power
To maximize enterprise value, it's crucial to differentiate between product-market fit and power. While product-market fit is about satisfying customer needs and gaining initial traction, power is about capturing value and maintaining a competitive advantage. It's important for companies to assess the power opportunity inherent in their platform and make strategic decisions on when and how to start capturing that value. This requires careful consideration of factors like surplus leader margin, differential scale, scalability, future market share, and retention of customers.
The Pricing Dilemma: Leveraging Surplus Leader Margin
One strategic approach that companies can take to increase profitability and leverage their power is to focus on maximizing their surplus leader margin. This involves charging a price higher than their competitors while still maintaining a competitive position. Determining the optimal pricing level requires an understanding of customers' perception of value, the differential scale relative to competitors, and the long-term benefits of capturing more revenue while retaining customer loyalty. Each company will need to carefully evaluate their unique circumstances and make pricing decisions aligned with their goals.
Case Study: Leveraging Power in the Semiconductor Industry
TSMC, as a leading player in the semiconductor industry, has strategically embraced a long-term vision that involves sacrificing current profits to maintain its competitive power. By investing heavily in research and development, targeting scale economies, and making the right choices in technology advancement, TSMC ensures an advantage in performance and cost-effectiveness. This positions them as a trusted partner for customers, enhancing customer loyalty, and enabling them to command a surplus leader margin in pricing strategies. TSMC's commitment to technological excellence and customer retention contributes to their positioning as an industry leader.
The Importance of Power in Platforms
Power in platforms is crucial for sustaining a competitive advantage and creating value. While achieving product-market fit is essential, it does not guarantee long-term success if the platform lacks power. Power comes from one platform outperforming others by delivering superior value. This difference in performance is often driven by differences in scale on at least one side of the platform, which creates barriers to switching for users. Easy multi-homing can undermine power, so maintaining a competitive advantage requires careful consideration.
Differentiating Network Effects and Network Economies
Network effects and network economies are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings. Network effects refer to the value created when a platform's users increase, while network economies represent power derived from direct network effects. Direct network effects occur when a user's joining immediately impacts others on the same side of the platform, leading to strong competitive advantages and potential winner-takes-all situations. Indirect network effects, on the other hand, are more common and focus on value creation without significant power differentiation.
We sit down once again with one of the world’s very best strategy thinkers, 7 Powers author Hamilton Helmer — this time joined by his impressive Strategy Capital colleague Chenyi Shi — to discuss platform businesses, and how the Power framework applies to them. If you’re building, investing in, or just curious about the dynamics of platforms, this episode is a must-listen. We owe a huge thanks to Hamilton and Chenyi for sharing their work-in-progress insights on this very special category of companies. Tune in!
This episode has video! You can watch it on YouTube.
Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.
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