Amazon started as an online bookstore, and now, it has
revolutionized the retail ecosystem completely. Netflix started as
a DVD rental store, and now, it is giving giants in the media
industry a run for their money. When was the last time you
witnessed a new neighbourhood bookstore or movies-for-rent store
run so successfully? What makes Amazon continuously evolve, adapt,
and grow? Do you think it is the fact that it is a digital
platform? Well, a local bookstore can have a website too. Is it the
first-mover advantage then? Not entirely, because we were still
consuming media content online before the likes of Netflix came
into the picture.
What then has been the most predominant factor in the Darwinian
upshot of these platforms in the past decade? The answer clearly,
is Data. It is the ever-evolving use of data to learn and create
differentiating capabilities before everyone else, that has given
these platforms their edge. Digital, in-fact, is just an idea.
