The very earliest platform was perhaps much less sophisticated than its current-day counterpart –humans, for the longest time, have served as intermediaries of information and transaction. Some economists study the matching and marriage mar-ket in the context of platforms, for which there have always been, before the current digital age, human matchmakers. In cultures where matchmaking is traditionally done through net-work connections, such as India, the importance of prominent matchmakers in the community persists. Today, these matchmaking activities through platforms take a more digital form. For example, the highly successful website Shaadi has absorbed some of the businesses that would have flowed through these human platforms in the past. Platforms have grown tremendously in importance over the last several decades. Amazon, Google, Uber, Airbnb, Visa, and Alibaba are justa few of the major businesses that feature platform dynamics. Platforms are market makers, facilitating and lowering the cost of interaction between users while also subtly shaping that interaction through fees, the ordering of search results, etc.This platform explosion can be attributed to the rise of information technology: the Internet allows platforms to connect users without the logistical challenges of physical meetings and to observe and levy fees on those interactions.