Business model patterns that work across industries
Ideas that already work somewhere, described the same way: why they work, when they hold, where they break, and where else they work. Pick one and turn it into a playbook for your product.
Duolingo's streak loop
Duolingo made a hard, long goal (learning a language) into something people do every day for a few minutes. The lesson is not the hook; the streak is. Losing it feels like losing something you own, so people come back.
Also works at Snapchat, GitHub, Fitness trackersBloomberg's alerts and watchlists
A Bloomberg Terminal user names what they care about and the threshold that matters. The terminal stays quiet until something crosses it. Because it is quiet, an alert is read at once, and silence is trusted.
Also works at Google Alerts, Price trackers for flights and shopping, Infrastructure monitoringPlatform licensing
A company with a strong engine for making things can either make them all itself or license the engine to many partners who do. Biotech discovery platforms often choose to license: partners pay to use the platform and carry the expensive late-stage risk.
Also works at Arm, Dolby, QualcommAirline yield management
An empty seat is worth nothing once the plane leaves. Airlines learned to sell the same seat at many prices, opening and closing fares as the flight fills, so each seat earns as much as someone will pay for it before it expires.
Also works at Hotels, Ride-hailing, Event ticketingDropbox's two-sided referral
Dropbox paid for referrals in the product itself: both the person who invited and the person who joined got extra free storage. The reward cost little to give, was exactly what users wanted more of, and made inviting a friend feel like a favour.
Also works at PayPal, Uber and Airbnb, Cloud and SaaS productsCostco's membership model
Costco charges a yearly fee to shop and keeps its markups low. Much of its profit comes from the fees, so it wins when members save money and come back, not when it sells them more expensive things.
Also works at Amazon Prime, Sam's Club and BJ's, Software with platform fees