One of the major themes we’re exploring in our research this year is how to take a platform approach to business strategy. Two of the more interesting ones i’ve been researching lately are both driving hyper-local commerce, but doing so in very different ways. The first is Yelp, which has developed a collaborative platform centered on a community of people—who we call ‘prosumers’—sharing their opinions and ratings of local service providers. The other is Milo, which has developed an analytics platform that uses data from local retailers to show customers where they can find a particular product, filtering results by both proximity and price.
So at a high level, the major difference between the two is simple. The core of Yelp’s competitive advantage is it’s community of contributors; the core of Milo’s competitive advantage is driven by it’s inventory data. Both, of course, help people find products or services to purchase in their local area. My question to wikinomics readers is simple – given the option, which of the two would you prefer to own – and why? I’ve got a few of my own ideas on this, but would like to hear what other people think first…