On May 28, 2018, about 20 member companies of the VDMA attended the constituent meeting, reports Industrie.de . They have already gained profound experience in the field and in some cases established platform solutions in the market, said Rainer Glatz, VDMA’s Managing Director for Software and Digitalization . In addition to the establishment of best practices, the common knowledge will be published to make it easier for beginners. The white paper for the Hanover Messer 2019 is supposed to show how platform economics can work based on successful projects. Information events are planned as well.

Support for new business models in this area could even come from politics in the coming months. The CDU, CSU, and SPD have agreed in the coalition agreement (line 1938 et seq.) to take the development of platform economics into account and “ensure the competitiveness of the German economy.” Market observation is supposed to be strengthened and intensified with specialized personnel for this purpose. In addition, existing barriers are to be reduced in order to build strong German and European players. What that means in specific terms remains to be seen.