Robby Greer

“Owners of premium brands can charge more for their offerings, but the owners of two-sided networks want to pay to sellers as little as possible of the money they take in from buyers. The result is an obvious tension. Many platforms, especially when they’re new and trying to build volume and network effects, want to have on board at least one prestigious brand. But as platforms grow, they want to keep more of the consumer’s share of both mind and wallet.”
― Andrew McAfee, Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

“Because we humans are so fond of our judgment, and so overconfident in it, many of us, if not most, will be too quick to override the computers, even when their answer is better.”
― Andrew McAfee, Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

“The platform can also use the extensive tool kit of revenue management techniques to shape which suppliers each buyer sees, and how prominently. It’s not too cynical to expect that a platform might use this power to feature lesser-known suppliers over more famous ones, all else being equal.”
― Andrew McAfee, Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

“Getting rid of human judgments altogether—even those from highly experienced and credentialed people—and relying solely on numbers plugged into formulas, often yields better results.”
― Andrew McAfee, Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future