rVibe logoGenerally, it’s assumed that it’s better for a technology service to be a platform of some type. By platform, I mean a technology solution that provides a programming interface to allow other technology solutions to hook into. That’s the idea behind the current Facebook technical strategy, and it’s a common practice of many companies with technology solutions designed for integration. The assumption is that you can gain greater leverage, usage and revenue by being a platform. However, when creating a platform, I think some services miss it by platforming too early and pricing ineffectively. Meaning, to me it seems that first, you need to have a successful (even moderately) application before you become a platform, otherwise you have a critical mass problem. Even Snocap is not growing as fast as it might as a platform and they got great backing. Also in thinking through a platform strategy, the other problems I think companies encounter as a barrier for others to adopt it is pricing. I know when we’ve approached vendors that are a platform, I am very put off by high up-front costs, monthly fees and other gotchas. It’s not that I am opposed to paying for services - I love to pay for a high value service - but the payment structure is geared toward the benefit if the company (ie: predictable revenue) rather than the consumer (me). So that said - I’ve decided to platform rVibe. But only once we have some worthwhile application adoption. We have the technical and commerce structure in place (mostly) and in the coming months we’re going to layer on a robust and simple API that allows companies to leverage all the eCommerce, social networking and distributed storage functions of rVibe. And - from a pricing standpoint, it’s pay as you go - and pay only for what you use. And in keeping with adding value back to our consumers (any consumer, even b2b consumers) we will offer discounts based on how you leverage the system. If you feed back into it and not just consume it, then you can get a reduced a la carte rate. And some of the service will be free. Path to rapid adoption.

Originally published on WordPress on September 13, 2007. Migrated to this blog on May 29, 2025.