Issues with social platforms evolution

As a platform evolves, it usually includes features that were once developed by third party or as extensions. In the product family literature we have called this feature descension and described in a paper Continuous Evolution Through Software Architecture Evaluation: a Case Study:

New features will be implemented in high-end phones and once commoditized, they will be moved into the core set features part of the family architecture. As Lehman states, the functionality has a tendency to move from the perimeter of the product towards the center, as the innermost layers extend and support new functionality.

In the business strategy jargon this is called Platform Envelopment. A couple of books on managing platforms are the Catalyst Code and Invisible Engines: How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries. The article describing the Platform Envelopment approach is by Thomas Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne. You can find the pdf here.

The line between what is the core platform and what it is not is dynamic. The owner of the platform has to manage very carefully its evolution otherwise it will alienate third party developers. The strengths of the platform come from managing the ecosystem. However, platform evolution and competition may lead to feature descension and platform envelopment.

No surprises then when we see the latest news on the problems of third party  apps with the social platforms, Twitter and Facebook:

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