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Internet platforms, marketplaces, and digital advertising

How marketplaces for goods and services earn a take rate on gross merchandise value, why network effects make platforms strong, how digital advertising is priced (CPM and CPC), how super-apps in Asia and the Gulf combine rides, food, and payments, and how to crack platform cases.

29 min3 lessons Last reviewed
Start lesson 1 How internet platforms, marketplaces, and digital ads work

Key takeaways

  • A platform connects two or more groups, such as buyers and sellers, or riders and drivers, or users and advertisers.
  • A marketplace makes money only if each order earns more than its variable costs, including incentives, and if there are enough orders to cover fixed costs.
  • Platforms win locally. A leader in one country can lose in the next because network effects are built city by city and country by country.
By the end you will be able to
  • Explain the main internet business models: marketplaces, advertising, subscriptions, and super-apps
  • Explain network effects and the chicken-and-egg problem of a new marketplace
  • Calculate contribution per order from GMV, take rate, and incentives
  • Calculate advertising revenue from users, impressions, and CPM, and return on ad spend from CPC
  • Crack typical platform cases in growth, profitability, and new services

Lessons

1

How internet platforms, marketplaces, and digital ads work

Business models, network effects, the marketplace revenue tree, advertising basics, super-apps, and key metrics.

7 min
2

Platform unit economics: contribution per order and ad revenue

Work out contribution per ride, break-even volume, advertising revenue from CPM, and return on ad spend from CPC.

10 min
3

Internet platforms: players, super-apps, trends, regulation, and how to crack the cases

Examples of platforms by region, super-apps in Asia and the Gulf, trends from 2024 to 2026, regulation basics, and typical case prompts.

12 min

Worked cases in this module

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Key terms