---
name: digital-business-model-classifier
description: "Classifies a business or initiative against 9 digital business model archetypes, identifies its primary value creation and capture mechanisms, maps network effects and moat type, and flags strategic implications and risks. Use when evaluating a new digital venture, diagnosing a competitor's model, or determining which archetype a transformation initiative should pursue."
argument-hint: "[business-description] [stage]"
allowed-tools: ["Read"]
---

# Digital Business Model Classifier

## Purpose
Take an unstructured description of a business or initiative and return a rigorous classification against established digital business model archetypes — naming the primary and secondary models, the specific value creation and capture mechanisms at work, the moat type, and the strategic implications that follow from the model. Replaces hand-wavy "it's a platform" labeling with a defensible diagnosis that drives strategy decisions.

## When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Classify what kind of digital business model a venture or product uses
- Diagnose a competitor's business model and where it captures value
- Decide which archetype a transformation initiative or new product should adopt
- Evaluate whether a business is a true platform/marketplace or something else (linear, reseller, SaaS)
- Assess the defensibility, network effects, or moat of a digital business
- Compare two or more business models side by side for an investment or partnership decision

## Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- **Business description**: 3–6 sentences on what the business does, for whom, and how it makes money
- **Customer/user types**: Who participates — buyers, sellers, end users, advertisers, developers
- **Revenue mechanism**: How money is collected today (if known) — subscription, take rate, ad, license, transaction
- **Stage**: Idea / early / scaling / mature
- **Industry/category**: The market it operates in
- **Comparable companies**: Any "it's like X" reference points the user has in mind
- **Decision at hand**: What the classification is feeding — investment, build/buy, repositioning, competitive response

If revenue mechanism or comparables are missing, infer from the description and flag the inference explicitly.

## Instructions

### Step 1: Identify Participant Structure
Determine whether the business is **linear** (single value chain: produce → sell → consume) or **multi-sided** (connects two or more distinct participant groups who need each other). This single distinction separates true platforms from everything else and prevents the most common misclassification.
- Count the distinct participant groups and what each gives and gets
- Identify which groups, if any, create value *for each other* (the signature of a platform)
- Note any group that subsidizes another (the "money side" vs. "subsidy side")

### Step 2: Match Against the 9 Archetypes
Score the business against each archetype. Name the **primary** model and up to two **secondary/hybrid** models.

**1 — Platform / Marketplace**: Connects two+ participant groups; value created by the participants, not the operator; revenue via take rate or transaction fee. Network effects are the core moat. (Airbnb, Uber, Etsy)

**2 — SaaS**: Software delivered as an ongoing service; value from the tool's utility; revenue via per-seat or usage subscription. Moat is switching cost and embedded workflow. (Salesforce, Figma)

**3 — Direct-to-Consumer (DTC)**: Linear; owns product and customer relationship by cutting intermediaries; revenue via product margin. Moat is brand and first-party data. (Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club)

**4 — Aggregator**: Owns demand by controlling discovery/distribution; commoditizes supply; revenue via ad or transaction. Moat is demand-side scale that forces supply to come to it. (Google, Booking.com)

**5 — Data Monetization**: Core value is data collected as a byproduct of another activity, sold or activated into ad targeting, insights, or risk products. Moat is proprietary data depth. (credit bureaus, ad networks)

**6 — Freemium**: Free tier drives acquisition and self-serve adoption; revenue from conversion to paid tiers. Moat is funnel efficiency plus product virality. (Dropbox, Slack)

**7 — Subscription (non-SaaS)**: Recurring access to content, product, or membership; revenue via predictable recurring fees. Moat is retention economics and catalog/access value. (Netflix, Amazon Prime)

**8 — Marketplace-enabled Services / Managed Network**: Platform that takes on more of the transaction (vetting, quality, fulfillment) than a pure marketplace; higher take rate, lower scale. Moat is trust and service quality. (Care.com managed, vertical labor marketplaces)

**9 — Open / Developer Platform (Ecosystem)**: Provides infrastructure or APIs others build on; revenue via usage, rev-share, or marketplace tax. Moat is the ecosystem of complementors. (AWS, Stripe, Shopify)

For the primary match, state in one sentence *why* it fits and *what would have to be true* for a different archetype to be the better fit.

### Step 3: Map Value Creation and Value Capture Separately
These are distinct and frequently confused. Address each explicitly:
- **Value creation**: What unmet need is solved and *who creates the value* — the operator, the participants, or the data? Name the mechanism (matching, aggregation, tooling, curation, access).
- **Value capture**: *How* the business converts created value into revenue, and *what fraction* it can defensibly take. Flag any gap where the business creates more value than it captures (a strategic vulnerability or upside).

### Step 4: Assess Network Effects and Moat Type
Classify the defensibility:
- **Network effect type**: None / Direct (same-side) / Indirect (cross-side) / Data network effect / Social network effect — and whether they are local or global
- **Moat type**: Network effects / Switching costs / Brand / Economies of scale / Proprietary data / Counter-positioning / Process power
- **Multi-homing risk**: How easily can participants use competitors simultaneously? High multi-homing weakens platform moats severely.

### Step 5: Flag Strategic Implications
Translate the classification into 4–6 implications the decision-maker must act on. Each implication ties to the archetype:
- The single hardest thing this model must get right to win (e.g., chicken-and-egg for marketplaces, churn for SaaS, CAC payback for DTC)
- The metric that most predicts success for this archetype
- The most likely failure mode given the stage
- One non-obvious strategic move the model enables or demands

## Output Format
- **Structure**: Classification verdict up front, then five labeled analysis sections, then a ranked implications list
- **Length**: 700–1,000 words
- **Format**: Structured document — short prose sections with a value creation/capture comparison and a numbered implications list
- **Sections**: Verdict (primary + secondary models) → Participant Structure → Archetype Rationale → Value Creation vs. Value Capture → Network Effects & Moat → Strategic Implications
- **Tone**: Strategy consultant — precise, taxonomy-disciplined, willing to commit to a classification rather than hedge across all archetypes

## Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] A single primary archetype is named (not a list of "could be any of these")
- [ ] Linear vs. multi-sided structure is explicitly determined before the archetype is assigned
- [ ] Value creation and value capture are addressed as two separate items, not merged
- [ ] Network effect type and moat type are each named from the defined options — not described vaguely
- [ ] Strategic implications are tied to the specific archetype, not generic business advice
- [ ] Any inference made from missing inputs is flagged as an assumption

## Notes
- The most common error is calling any digital business a "platform" — reserve that label for genuinely multi-sided models where participants create value for each other; a SaaS tool with an API is not automatically a platform.
- Hybrid models are real and expected (e.g., freemium SaaS, DTC with a marketplace layer); name the dominant model first, then the secondary layer, rather than forcing a single label.
- When the value-creation/value-capture gap is large, that gap *is* the strategy conversation — surface it prominently.
- For early-stage ventures, weight the classification toward the model the business is *building toward*, but note the model it operates as today if they differ.

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## How to use this skill

This file is a Claude Code skill in [Anthropic's standard format](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills) — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.

**Installing in Claude Code:**
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Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.

**Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:**

1. Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
2. Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits

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