ABSTRACT
Digital platforms are disrupting traditional companies. Napster disrupting the music industry and Google disrupting newspapers are good examples. Disruption can take two different forms. Sometimes, platforms simply substitute traditional players, as they build better digital alternatives. It would be the case of email and postal services and Uber and taxis. More subtly, traditional players can be platformed, as they are intermediated by the players in the data layer, displaced from the relationship with the customer, their services being commoditized, and the platform becoming the coordinator of the market. Traditional players are always active, but their role in the market becomes secondary as platforms take the lead and dictate the conditions for the provision of the service, being in the position to extract an important share of the value in each industry.
