Book excerpt: "Platform Scale explains the design of a family of emerging digital business models that enables today's startups to achieve rapid scale: the platform business model. The many manifestations of the platform business model - social media, the peer economy, cryptocurrencies, APIs and developer ecosystems, the Internet of things, crowdsourcing models, and many others - are becoming increasingly relevant. Yet, most new platform ideas fail because the business design and growth strategies involved in building platforms are not well understood. Platform scale is a builder's manual for anyone building a platform business today. It lays out a structured approach to desinging and growing a platform business model and addressess the key factors that lead to the success and failure of these businesses."--back cover.