Your Complete Guide to Network Effects: Marketplace Business Models

Platforms and marketplaces have a place in web3 -- OpenSea is a multi-billion dollar company -- but it charges only 2.5% fees on transactions. More value accrues to the creator and the consumer. Web 2.0 platforms and marketplaces charge a lot more than 2.5%. Airbnb takes roughly ~15% from both sides combined. eBay, which is apparently like an OpenS... See more

Marketplace monetization depends on two factors — Transaction complexity and the asymmetry in value to the demand and supply sides

Covid-19 has created short-term winners and losers. But the more structural impact is that trends already under way have been accelerated. Everything was already moving online. Now this is happening even faster. Online marketplaces now have a combined value of $814 billion globally. 58% of consumer marketplaces could be well-positioned to navigate ... See more

Marketplaces win if they can more cheaply attract demand/supply then their competitors and are then able to extract the most value possible from the network without increasing churn. Upwork did this via the press. Fiverr did it via viral growth loops. Braintrust does it with crypto.

Product-oriented marketplaces (e.g. EBAY, TDUP*, Faire*) primarily match supply and demand in goods and then enable the payment for and fulfillment of those goods. The way these marketplaces achieve leverage is by driving the cost of the transaction down.