Scaling up a multi-sided platform

: the case of Susdee

Abstract

Susdee is a digital multi-sided platform project creating transparency around corporate social and environmental behavior with the help of employee reviews. Still being in an early stage, Susdee faces some challenges regarding its platform launch. These challenges are mainly connected to the question of how to reach a critical mass of users, create relevant content, and initiate network effects among participants. A central issue for Susdee to be solved is the so called chicken-and-egg dilemma, describing the problem that one side of users (readers) is only joining the platform when the other side (contributors) is already active and vice versa. To derive strategic recommendations for Susdee on dealing with this situation, this research investigates, along with the existing platform launch framework of Parker et al. (2017), how four successful platform providers have launched their businesses. Further, an experiment is conducted on the project's landing page to test various types of user activation and to compare the behavior of different target groups on the platform. The results show (1) how the distinct strategies can be applied by Susdee and suggest extending Parker’s framework by four additional strategies; and (2) that it is possible to trigger the participation and verification of users on the platform by setting simple incentives, especially when these users are from a younger generation, well-educated, and sustainable conscious. The findings are especially useful for the project founders but also serve as a starting point for academics and managers that are operating in a platform environment.

Date of Award	29 Apr 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	René Bohnsack (Supervisor)