Harvard Business Review: A Study of More Than 250 Platforms Reveals Why Most Fail

• since many things can go wrong in a platform market, managers and entrepreneurs need to make concerted efforts to learn from failures.  
• since platforms are ultimately driven by network effects, getting the prices right and identifying which sides to subsidize remain the biggest challenges
• put trust front and center
•  timing is crucial. Being early is preferable
• hubris can lead to disaster

Source: the fabulous HBR