Envelopment lessons to manage digital platforms: The cases of Google and Yahoo

Abstract

Envelopment is a form of business model innovation where companies add new functionality to their platforms to outcompete rivals. The two large internet corporations analyzed in this study, Google and Yahoo, employed diverging envelopment strategies. Google added related functionality to their initial platform and then expanded into functionally distinct platforms. Yahoo, on the other hand, expanded directly into functionally distinct platforms.