How to create a connection platform (marketplace): the complete guide [2024].

This is the first step of your project.

A persona is a fictional character representing a target group of your clients. It is assigned characteristics (professional situation, interests, ...).

These characteristics are taken into account in the development of a new product/service and in the marketing and digital strategy.

It is the personas that will help you think about and develop your platform.

You can have several personas depending on your project.

Some personas can overlap. Sellers can become buyers and vice versa, as on platforms like Vinted, 2nd hand, or Autoscout.

It can be the same person, but they are two personas with different needs: one wants to sell, the other wants to buy.

Some personas can be distinct, meaning they are different individuals.

This is generally the case on Airbnb; some put their real estate up for rent, and others rent these properties. Most of the time, these are different people.

This is clearly the case with Uber, where on one side there is the driver, and on the other side, the passenger.

It is very important to define your personas well because they determine the functionalities of your platform, your approach in marketing, the creation of interfaces, etc.

Not all personas may be looking for the same thing, so it is necessary to take into account different needs to provide the appropriate solution.

When creating your project, the first question to ask yourself is:

What types of people would be interested in your service?

Your platform connects person A with person B. Do you have multiple types of person A and multiple types of person B? Can these personas be grouped or not?

Don't necessarily go too deep into the details. The goal at this stage is to have large user groups to think about different functionalities and your marketing strategies to convince these people to choose your platform.

Don't forget that even if you have asked questions, conducted market research, these personas are always of a hypothetical nature. Until you have tested your solution, you cannot fully verify it.

We will illustrate each chapter with two concrete examples: the giant Uber and Tafsquare, a platform we have developed that connects individuals with construction professionals.

Uber:

There are 3 different personas:

Occasional drivers

Regular drivers

Users (people looking for a driver to go from point A to point B)

Tafsquare:

There are 2 distinct personas:

Construction professionals

Individuals with a renovation or construction project

These personas will determine the important elements of the matchmaking platform. This step is therefore crucial

The first challenge of a connection platform: finding the first 100 users.

Let's imagine a persona A who sells and a persona B who buys. If there are no ads (persona A), it doesn't make sense for persona B to visit the platform, and vice versa. Your platform is, therefore, empty.

If there are no users, there is no connection, and thus your platform is a failure.

This is what we call a catch-22 situation.

Here are several solutions to attract users to your platform:

Gradual strategy by geographic area, school, etc.

Example: Facebook - they initially started at Harvard, then expanded to Stanford, and so on. They conducted communication and marketing campaigns at Harvard, and once they had enough users, they launched the network at Stanford and in all major universities in the country.

Later, they made the network accessible to non-university users while maintaining the same growth policy. This is how Facebook became an indispensable network.

Create artificial activity:

Via your internal network: create profiles on your platform and post items for sale, for example.

Via a fake network: create fake profiles to attract real users, as Reddit did. Today, the platform has more than 300 million active users per month.

This strategy had two advantages:

1) Users who created an account felt like they were joining an active community.

2) The content posted by fake accounts had an editorial line that Reddit wanted to see on its site, influencing the style of content posted by real users.

Via well-known third-party networks such as Autoscout24, Immoweb, Booking.com, Craigslist, a technique used by Airbnb.

They used Craigslist, a well-known classified ads platform in the United States. They categorised their ads by city.

Airbnb looked at all rental properties in San Francisco and manually recruited users from Craigslist. That's how they found some of their users.

Then they posted their ads on Craigslist with a link to Airbnb to finalise the reservation and attract people looking for rental properties.

They did this until they had enough users.

Getting the first 100 users is the biggest challenge for a connection platform, but with these tactics, you can achieve it.

The second challenge of a matchmaking platform: determining what an active user is.

On your platform and on the web in general, we talk about an active user, but what do we mean exactly by active?

Which action transforms a simple user into an active user of your platform?

Should they buy something? Should they visit your platform daily/weekly? Should they create an account?

This is very important because defining an active user helps in determining acquisition and retention rates.

The acquisition rate:

The acquisition rate is the chance that a visitor to your platform becomes an active user.

Example: Airbnb (all figures are fictitious):

They have 1000 visitors to a page dedicated to people wanting to rent out a property, and of these 1000 visitors, 50 place an ad on the platform. Their acquisition rate is 5% (50/1000x100).

This rate helps measure your marketing costs to get a final user. So you know how much an active user costs on your platform.

The retention rate:

The retention rate determines how long a user stays active on your platform. You can calculate it for any period (1 day, 1 week, 1 month). It is, in a way, the customer loyalty rate.

Example: the importance of the retention rate for Netflix :

They use the retention rate to decide whether to keep or remove a series from their platform. They analyse this rate for each episode, and if it decreases too much over time, they remove the series.

⇒ Both rates let you know if your platform is working, if your interface and features are appealing.

Example: you have an acquisition rate of 10% and a retention rate of 50%, and you change 5 features out of the 10 you offer. To know if you were right to modify your platform, you just need to reanalyse these two rates.

⇒ These rates also help you know if you need to make more efforts on acquisition or retention, or both. They help you adjust your marketing and communication strategies.

Depending on how they operate, some platforms will need to constantly acquire new users, while others will focus more on retention to sustain their activity.

These rates are performance indicators that help you validate your platform.

Andrew Chen, currently a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has led teams for driver growth at Uber and is an expert in acquisition and retention.

He makes an interesting analogy to explain the importance of the acquisition rate and the retention rate:

"I consider websites as 'leaking buckets' where users are constantly poured in at the top, and the site is constantly leaking users. You can imagine that if you pour 1000 users into a website and then stop acquiring new users, this number of 1000 can only decrease."

As in previous chapters, we continue with our two examples:

Uber:

Users: there are occasional and regular users:

⇒ Work on acquisition but don't neglect retention to build long-term loyalty.

Drivers: want to keep drivers as long as possible to reassure users:

⇒ Promote retention.

Tafsquare:

Individuals: mainly occasional users (most people don't do construction work constantly):

⇒ Promote almost exclusively acquisition.

Professionals: acquisition costs are higher because they will be favoured; the quality of the platform depends on them, so we want to keep them as long as possible:

⇒ Promote retention.

We are reaching the conceptualisation phase of your platform and we will explain what you need to consider before and during development.

You must first decide whether you want a platform for mobile (tablet and smartphone), web (web browser on a computer), or both.

Choosing both media at the outset is not always interesting as it requires two developments, making it more costly.

The choice is made based on your personas. Therefore, do not neglect this part BEFORE development.

You can have a web platform for one persona and a mobile platform for another.

What are the advantages of the web?

Accessible from anywhere (computer, mobile, tablet): we adapt your interface to be pleasant to use on all media.

Optimalisation for mobile is crucial because most users use mobile devices to browse the web.

No installation required, unlike mobile, making access easier and possibly convincing some users more easily.

Updates are done automatically: just refresh the page, and the user has access to the latest version of your platform.

Easy redirection to your platform from an advertisement in Google search results, social media, or any site. Complicated to achieve with a mobile application.

Possible for natural SEO.

If you are looking for a web platform development company, we will be happy to discuss your project with you.

What are the advantages of mobile?

Often more user-friendly than the web.

Easy to use on the go.

Preferable for regular use: interesting for a platform that is used often because access is very fast.

Push notifications: more easily accepted than emails by users. Do not abuse them, of course. It's a good way to get in touch with your users.

If your platform needs the user's geographical location, gyroscope (orientation of your smartphone), taking photos, ...

Two disadvantages of mobile to consider:

Entry barrier: the user must install your application. This is an effort to consider because you could already lose users at this stage.

Often more expensive than the web: technologies are more innovative; you need to develop for Android and iOS. There are technologies to develop both at the same time, but in general, it is more complex than the web. Discover the technologies we recommend for developing a mobile application.

If you are looking for a custom mobile app development company, we invite you to visit our site and contact us; we will gladly discuss your project with you.

To choose your media correctly, think about your personas and main functionalities.

Our advice: no CMS like WordPress, Drupal, or Prestashop! It is very effective for standard uses like a showcase website or a blog but not for a matchmaking platform.

⇒ Opt for a custom solution.

Media used by Uber and Tafsquare:

Uber:

Drivers and users:

Used only in the car or on the road

Need for geographical location

Regular use

⇒ 100% mobile

Tafsquare:

Individuals:

Acquisition easier via the web

Occasional use

⇒ We are more interested in the web for this persona

Professionals:

Creating quotes

Following requests

⇒ 100% web, although mobile could be considered.

The development process itself comes fairly late in the process.

There are two major development methodologies:

1) Develop the entire platform and then bring it to market.

2) Phase the creation: gradually progress with each step:

Start by developing a Proof of Concept (POC) to demonstrate the feasibility, followed by a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as a provisional version to test with the key features for each persona.

Then, proceed with versions 1, 2, 3, ... until reaching the final version.

We prefer the second solution because it helps to validate or refute the initial assumptions and adjust the development if necessary.

For example, imagine you have a budget of 50,000 euros for your platform:

You develop the entire platform at once.

You launch it to the market and realise it doesn't work. Unfortunately, you have no budget left to make changes.

By phasing the development, you maximise your chances of achieving the best possible platform. We will revisit this point later.

Internally, we use the Agile project management methodology, known as SCRUM, which clearly divides development into multiple phases. To learn more about this methodology, we invite you to read the article.

Once you've chosen your development methodology, you must decide whether to handle the development of your platform internally or outsource it.

If you have a developer on your team, you can handle the development internally. This allows you more control over the project, priorities, and the time allocated to each part.

However, even if you have the skills internally, it's always interesting to bring in external service providers for consultancy to add missing profiles to your team.

And of course, if you don't have the skills, you should outsource the development. While you may have less control, you benefit from the expertise of your service provider.

You gain access to advice and skills from various profiles: a designer, an interface ergonomics specialist, a database specialist, a software architect, various developer profiles, an expert in platform marketing optimization, and more.

All these experts can help you address different challenges throughout the development of your platform.

Choose a service provider with experience in the type of platform development you are interested in.

Whether you choose to develop internally or outsource, opt for proven and well-known technologies. Here's a link to help you understand which technologies are popular.

Certainly, do not choose outdated technologies, but also avoid the newest technology that has just been released.

For example, for many projects, we use the Python programming language with the Django framework, a technology used by YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Spotify, ... It's a robust, reliable technology used by millions of developers.

The importance of making adjustments:

Sometimes, even after extensive market research and surveys among potential users, your project may not achieve the expected success.

If that's the case, don't give up. Never be afraid to go back to the steps before development to adjust your project based on reality.

Always remember that your project, before being launched on the market, is just a theory, a hypothesis to validate or refute.

By choosing phased development, you get the chance to see if your project appeals to users before the final version. This is the main advantage of this development method.

Don't see adjusting your project as a failure but rather as a new chance for success.

Note that you don't necessarily have to change your entire project; sometimes, only a few small adjustments are needed.

It can also happen that a well-running project adjusts to grow even further. For example, if you notice that one of your features is used much more than others, you may be able to adjust your project to highlight that feature more.

Here are two well-known examples that demonstrate the benefits of making adjustments:

Instagram was originally called Burbn and was an app that allowed sharing plans and photos based on location. After noticing that the photo-sharing feature was much more popular than others, the management decided to focus on that function. This led to Burbn becoming Instagram, the largest and most famous photo-sharing platform.

Facebook has also made adjustments: initially, it was only intended for Harvard University and later for other major universities. Given its tremendous success, Mark Zuckerberg decided to expand it to the general public and become a global platform. He also gradually adapted its features to compete with rivals.

Discover adjustments made by Uber and Tafsquare:

Uber:

Version 1: renting limousines slightly more expensive than a taxi

Version 2: renting a ride with a driver using a private vehicle

⇒ Partially internalized

Tafsquare:

Version 1: a platform for B2B in all sectors

Version 2: a platform for B2B in construction

Version 3: a platform for B2C in construction

⇒ They lacked internal skills: development was outsourced and handled by our team.

Before diving into the development of your matching platform, it is important to ask the right questions to maximise your chances of success.

Firstly, correctly identify your future users and think about them throughout all stages of your project.

Next, determine the added value of your product. You should be able to answer the question: 'Why would they use your platform?'

Then, take the time to list the main features of your platform.

Once all these steps are completed, you can think about the marketing of your platform: How will it become known?

There are different techniques to get your first users: use of fake profiles, an internal network, known websites, ...

The same goes for marketing and communication techniques: community management, sales teams, media, SEO, SEA, ... Choose the most appropriate techniques for your project.

Then comes the choice of your medium: mobile, web, or both? Choose based on your features and personas.

Once you have chosen, you can structure the screens of your platform through diagrams that will give you an idea of the final result.

Finally, you arrive at the development of your platform. There are two major development methodologies: develop the entire platform and then launch it on the market, or phase the creation and first develop a Proof of Concept (POC), then a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), V1, V2, V3, ...

You can internalize the development or outsource it if you do not have the skills. Engaging external providers allows you to benefit from their expertise and various profiles useful for such development.

If you realise that your platform is not achieving the expected success, remember that you can still pivot your project. Nothing is final. Even the biggest global platforms have made serious adapatations to succeed.

Your platform is developed and launched on the market, but your work does not stop there; you have to make it work.

Do not neglect the steps before and after development; they are as important as development.

We hope this article will help you move forward with your project.