The platform owns the infrastructure and the rules of exchange, not the inventory. Its core asset is the network of participants and the ease with which they transact. As more of one group joins, the platform becomes more valuable to the other, a dynamic known as a network effect.
This inverts the traditional firm. Growth comes from orchestrating an ecosystem rather than scaling internal production. Governance, trust, and matching quality become the operating disciplines that determine whether the model compounds or stalls.