Over the last decade we have witnessed the emergence of the "platform economy". This new business model enables platforms like AirBnB to be the largest hospitality company in the world without owning any inventory. Or Uber to be the largest taxi company, without any cars or driver employees. Every industry is being "disrupted" by platform models including current brands transitioning to this new model: Disney launching movies-on-demand; Nike transitioning to a platform for athletes; and Philips Medical's platform for connecting all medical practitioners and patients.
The platform model is better than a traditional "pipeline" model. They grow faster and bigger, are cheaper to operate, and have higher customer retention. They also create monopolies. There's only one Facebook, Linkedin, Uber, AirBnB, and Amazon.
But the success of these models comes at a great cost. While successful platforms are generating massive revenue, they employ much fewer people (In 2016, Facebook generated $600,000 of net income per employee) and often as casual "gig workers" without traditional job security, rights, and protection. They lack transparency and often exploit their customers' privacy, attention, and data. Their models enable them to circumvent safety regulations, certification, taxes, and the law. In their drive for financial and user growth, they often make decisions that are harmful to society (like Youtube's pedophile scandal that they did not address for years).
As platforms participate in a "winner takes all" market, they purposely create unsustainable stakeholder contracts - also known as "bait and switch". This comes in many forms. Uber inflates driver earnings and subsidizes fares in order to attract more drivers and riders, knowing that they will eventually lower driver rates and hike fares once they have muscled out competitors. When Udemy launched, they offered instructors 90% royalty on the courses they created. As the platform grew, they changed the structure so instructors only received 50% if the student was already a Udemy member, and 25% if they became a user via an ad. Many of the early adopter instructors left the platform (without their students). The irony is that Udemy wouldn't have any users if it wasn't for those early instructors who "invested" in the platform. And nearly everyone who has signed up for a paid platform as an early adopter - investing in their mission and vision - only to have them increase pricing, change their pricing model, or change directions once you're effectively "locked in".
Finally, platform companies win by creating a product based on large networks of people who contribute incremental value, but they operate and extract value like a traditional business: a hierarchical management structure and a small number of people -- founders (some times), early employees, and investors -- capturing a disproportionate amount of the value.
It doesn't have to be this way. There are many examples of successful platforms that operate based on a distributed model. Like the thousands of volunteers who have contributed to Wikipedia. Or the hundreds of thousands of developers who have installed, developed on, and contributed code to Wordpress (34% of all websites) or Apache (47% of websites).
Imagine, instead, if every person who uploaded a video on Youtube, who tweeted on Twitter, or who shared on Facebook received a share of the profit. Imagine if those early uber drivers & riders, and Udemy instructors received shares in the businesses that were built on their early adoption. Imagine if the influencers, institutions, and governments who bring their audience onto a platform had full transparency on how the platform is run, how they use member information, and had a voice in contributing to strategy and product roadmap.
That is our vision for Guides. Similar to the platform product model, we are also creating a platform operations model that is distributed and stakeholder-driven. This model ensures that purpose trumps profit. It empowers and compensates "workers" fairly. It forces transparency, reducing immoral decisions and practices. And similar to a platform product model, it can grow faster and bigger, be cheaper to operate, and have higher stakeholder (worker, contributor, customer) retention.
We're proposing an alternative model that distributes "ownership" among all stakeholders:
| Traditional Model | Guides Model | |
| Mission | Profit | Purpose |
| Team | Small number of overworked staff in a hierarchical management model | A large number of casual workers and partners in a distributed network management model |
| Profit Distribution | Limited Shareholders | All Stakeholders |
| Governance | Board of directors responsible for protecting shareholders interest | Board of advocates responsible for advocating for their stakeholder interests |