@techreport{MockerSebastian2024,
  type      = {Working Paper},
  author    = {Mocker, Martin and Sebastian, Ina},
  title     = {How Salesforce built its platform business : Salesforce built an external developer platform that allowed third parties to develop cloud apps extending the company's core CRM system.},
  series    = {CISR working paper},
  number    = {462},
  url       = {https://cisr.mit.edu/publication/MIT_CISRwp462_SalesforcePlatformBusiness_MockerSebastian},
  institution = {ESB Business School},
  pages     = {3 -- 31},
  year      = {2024},
  abstract  = {In 2023, Salesforce was the provider of the CRM system with the biggest market share. Besides providing a CRM software product, the company also offered an external developer platform called Salesforce Platform. Salesforce Platform enabled CRM customers to customize their CRM system and allowed partners (third-party developers) to develop cloud apps that could be distributed via Salesforce's AppExchange marketplace. Since its official launch in 2008, Salesforce Platform had become a major revenue contributor for the company, including from over 7,000 apps in AppExchange. Building a successful platform business extended far beyond building a technology platform to nurturing an entire ecosystem around it. Based on interviews with twelve executives, this case study illustrates what it takes for a product company to build a platform business—developing and scaling the business model, engineering the technology platform, growing a vivid community of developers, and marketing and selling the platform—and how Salesforce addressed related challenges.},
  language  = {en}
}