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I& #39;ve spent the last few months thinking about monetization of B2B marketplaces. Here are a few quick thoughts based on @rigup& #39;s trajectory, amongst others 
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B2B service marketplaces tend to be much harder to monetize compared to goods marketplaces. This is because as soon as personal relationships are involved the chances of disintermediation are much higher. This is particularly the case for less commoditized/more custom services.
For highly commoditized services (e.g. logistics), buyers don& #39;t care who the supplier is, they care more about convenience and price. Its, therefore, easier to extract a take rate so long as the platform delivers sufficient value (fast/simple booking, liquidity and better prices)
For less commoditized services (e.g. healthcare, oil and gas contractors), extracting a take rate is significantly harder especially in the early days. The tendency to move off-platform is much higher.
As a result, these less commoditized service marketplaces tend to start off with relatively low take rates (usually below 5%) or have no take rate at all.
They usually focus on the SaaS component in the beginning, optimising for greater liquidity and increasing share of wallet as opposed to driving revenue. Initially, they tend to be much cheaper than their competitors. This was the case for @rigup. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đź’°" title="Geldsack" aria-label="Emoji: Geldsack">
As these platforms scale and expand share of wallet, they can gradually start increasing prices until they are on par with incumbents, whilst still offering a significantly better experience. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đź’Ż" title="Hundert Punkte Symbol" aria-label="Emoji: Hundert Punkte Symbol">
Once they& #39;ve locked in the supply, they have enough leverage to increase prices and actually start charging more than the old school players. This is the RigUp story https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Feuer" aria-label="Emoji: Feuer"> 10x better experience, but no longer 10x cheaper
There are several other factors which affect take rates aside from how commoditized the service is:
1. Large AOVs tend to put downward pressure on take rates
2. The lower the fragmentation of the market, the lower the marketplace& #39;s leverage => lower take rates
1. Large AOVs tend to put downward pressure on take rates
2. The lower the fragmentation of the market, the lower the marketplace& #39;s leverage => lower take rates
3. The more value the platform delivers, the higher the take rate. Managed marketplaces ( @flexport) tend to derive higher take rates, compared to less managed ones ( @transfixIO and @freidesk). They also have much higher OPEX.
If you have any other thoughts on B2B marketplaces and monetization strategies, please give me a shout. Loving geeking out on this topic https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤓" title="Nerd-Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nerd-Gesicht">
Big up to my B2B marketplace brainstorming buddies for some awesome conversations on this topic @FjLabs @BessemerVP @sameer_singh17 @VersionOneVC https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Feuer" aria-label="Emoji: Feuer">
Another factor which I forgot to add:
If marketplaces are replacing an existing broker or intermediary, its much easier to extract a take rate! If they are building a new layer in between the demand and supply, then this is much harder unless the experience is at least 10x better
If marketplaces are replacing an existing broker or intermediary, its much easier to extract a take rate! If they are building a new layer in between the demand and supply, then this is much harder unless the experience is at least 10x better
