Publications
Publications
  • November 2007
  • Article
  • Harvard Business Review

A Staged Solution to the Catch-22

By: Andrei Hagiu and Thomas Eisenmann
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

Companies looking to launch a two-sided platform—between, for example, credit card users and merchants, or search engine users and advertisers—must overcome the reluctance of one side to sign on until it's confident the other side will be well populated. It's a common business quandary, but Google and Charles Schwab both found a way around it.

Keywords

Risk and Uncertainty; Social Psychology; Two-Sided Platforms

Citation

Hagiu, Andrei, and Thomas Eisenmann. "A Staged Solution to the Catch-22." Harvard Business Review 85, no. 11 (November 2007).

About The Author

Thomas R. Eisenmann

Entrepreneurial Management
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