Scaling PropTech: Going from Product to Platform

‘Product’ is one of the 3 simplest business model archetypes, together with ‘Service’ and ‘Commerce’. However, if any company wants to achieve the maximum potential of a market, it must move forward to 3 other more complicated business models (BM), reaching finally the most complicated BM which is the ‘Ecosystem’.

Ecosystems are always technologically embodied by platforms. Despite, platforms vary largely, and scientific research in certain areas is rather scarce. For example, ‘Commerce’ BM is embodied in e-commerce platforms (scientific research here is huge), but e-commerce is no longer a competitive advantage, but rather an industry standard and a must. Other platforms like communication platforms or analytical platforms are currently a competitive advantage, but structuring them is quite tricky, particularly related to the basic ‘Product’ of a given PropTech company.

I shall showcase some of these tricks companies have to pay attention to, and give a real-life example on how moving from ‘Product’ to ‘Ecosystem’ is completed in a real case. The insights derive from our scientific paper based on ca. 3 yrs’ research. The paper will be published in Computer Science and Interdisciplinary Research Journal in Dec. 2025 issue.