Digital Business

1. Viewing Jibo as a digital platform, what sides do you identify? What potential same-side and cross-side network effects do you identify?

Viewing Jibo as a digital platform, three sides can be identified:

1. End users (demand-side platform users), namely customers who would buy Jibo for their use.
2. Complementors (supply-side platform users) who enhance the Jibo ecosystem, namely third-party developers who would build new apps and capabilities (i.e. complements) for the Jibo platform as well as strategic content partners.
3. The Jibo company, who serves as both the platform provider and the platform sponsor, as they grant access to the Jibo platform, facilitate interactions through complementors and end-users through Jibo, determine who participates in the platform, and are responsible for developing its core platform and technology.

Potential same-side network effects include:

• The more developers there are for Jibo, the richer the use cases and applications other developers may make.
• The more developers there are, the better support system for developers will become.
• The more end users there are, network effects may be generated if there are apps/functionalities that allow them to interact with other Jibo end-users (e.g. videoconferencing).

Many cross-side networks effects can be identified:

• The number of services Jibo can provide to the end-user will increase as the number of developers creating apps for the Jibo platform increases.
• The more developers developing for Jibo and the better the functionality, more consumers will buy Jibo, resulting in more end-users.
• The more strategic content partners Jibo has, the more information can be provided to end-users.
• The more developers there are, the more taxes/fees can be collected by Jibo.
• The more end-users, with more revenue opportunities, the more developers will develop for Jibo.

2. What does it mean for a developer of Jibo skills to multi-hone on two social robot platforms?

When deciding whether to multi-hone on two social robot platforms, a developer must consider the potential costs they incur versus the benefits they could accrue from multi-honing, as well as the projected success of the two social robot platforms. To multi-hone at this stage may mean high costs and limited income.