Platform evangelism

Platform evangelism (also called developer relations,developer and platform evangelism,developer advocacy, or API evangelism) is the application of technology evangelism to a multi-sided platform. It seeks to accelerate the growth of a platform's commercial ecosystem of complementary goods, created by independent (third-party) developers, as a means to the end of maximizing the platform's market share.

A multi-sided platform creates value by bringing together two or more different groups who can create more value together than apart. Examples include buyers and sellers at an auction; readers and advertisers of a newspaper; and men and women at an online dating service. The platform vendor can profit by capturing a portion of the money that changes hands. Platform vendors can serve as de facto regulators of their markets.

Many platforms have only two sides: one of consumers and the other of independent (third-party) developers. Independent developers produce and sell complementary goods, also called "platform applications," directly to the platform's consumers. These applications rely on the platform's services to function. Generally speaking, consumers prefer a platform with more and higher-value applications, while developers prefer a platform with more and higher-paying consumers.

Recent examples of two-sided platforms that successfully attracted both consumers and developers include Apple iPhone,Nintendo Wii,Adobe Flash, and Microsoft Windows.

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