DIGITAL PLATFORM AS AN ACTUAL BUSINESS MODEL

Introduction. Nowadays, digital platforms have transformed practically every field of economic activity and are becoming one of the key competitive advantages in the process of dynamic development of technologies. The goal of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of digital platforms and their impact on the digitalisation of the economic system. The platforms are a multi-faceted field of study due to their highly diverse structure and interconnectedness with different institutions, markets and technologies. The exponential growth in the scope of platform innovations, the increasing complexity of platform architectures, and the direct spread of digital platforms in various industries are generating new challenges and tasks for the scientific community. Digital platforms serve as the mechanism by which for the digitalisation of the most economic and social activities. Currently, platforms are the most the most relevant and influential area of of the digital economy and the clearest its most obvious expression. Purpose. The main purpose of this paper is studying the effectiveness of digital platforms and their influence on the digitalisation of economic system. Materials and methods. The materials of the research are: 1) scientific publications and studies by national and foreign scientists investigating the development of digital platforms, in particularly their impact on the digitalisation of the economic system; 2) analytical reports of international organisations in the field of digitalisation. In conducting the research, the following scientific methods were used: methods of abstraction and generalisation (to clarify the essence of the «digital platform» category, identify its key characteristics and analysis of key competitive advantages in the digital environment), graphical method (to show the key differences between a digital platform and a traditional business model). Results. This article provides an overview of the main issues in the research of digital platforms. The main advantages of using the platform business model are analysed. Key competitive advantages in the modern digital environment with the involvement of a digital platform are substantiated. The article highlights the necessity of achieving conceptual clarity through providing clear formulations that define the evolution of digital platforms, their socio-technical nature and their impact on the transformation of business. Discussion. In further research, it proposed to concentrate attention on deeper study of the digital platform economy, in particularly, on the specifics of competition between platforms that are targeting the same customer base. After all, it is essential to understand the mechanism for creating viable multi-party platforms in a highly competitive environment.