Platforms divide into asset-owning product platforms and asset-outsourcing lean platforms

Evidence

Zipcar owns the assets it rents out – the vehicles; Uber does not. The former is a product platform, while the latter is a lean platform that attempts to outsource nearly every possible cost. (Uber aims, however, eventually to command a fleet of self-driving cars, which would transform it into a product platform.) Zipcar, by contrast, might be considered a ‘goods as a service’ type of platform. — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 64

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the reader the foundational product-vs-lean platform distinction, central to Srnicek’s rival taxonomy to Zuboff.
• ADDENDUM: The ‘goods as a service’ framing directly extends the ‘Grafting & Growth’ infrastructure article’s interest in ownership vs access models applied to physical assets.
• XREF: connects to: Lean platforms outsource non-tradable jobs globally and shift capital costs onto workers — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 72; Physical assets are becoming tradeable commodities in real-time digital markets — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 653

Related

• Lean platforms outsource non-tradable jobs globally and shift capital costs onto workers (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Lean platforms outsource non-tradable jobs globally and shift capital costs onto workers #expands (0.82) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 72
• Physical assets are becoming tradeable commodities in real-time digital markets #contradicts (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 653