This pattern relies on the ability to turn existing products or services into digital variants, and thus offer advantages over tangible products, e.g., easier and faster distribution. Ideally, the digitization of a product or service is realized without harnessing the value proposition which is offered to the customer. In other words: efficiency and multiplication by means of digitization does not reduce the perceived customer value.
How they do it: Napster was a pioneer in the are of digitizing music in form of the MP3 format. Its intial platform allowed its users to share those MP3s. Although the service was shut down due to copyright violations, a lot of digital music services emerged afterwards building on the success of Napster.
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How they do it: Nokia digitized multiple products and services in their role as one of the most popular mobile phone and smartphone company in the early 2000s. E.g. they pioneered in bringing digital photography and tv to mobile phones. Further examples include the mobile music platform Nokia Music Store which allowed phone users to download music on their devices.
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How they do it: As one of the first webmail services, Hotmail was a pioneer in digitizing traditional postal communication. It enabled users to set up a virtual inbox and send and receive email messages using the internet.
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How they do it: Traditionally, encyclopedias were publications spanning many invididual book volumes, and were out of date within a short time after publication. Wikipedia contributed to the demise of Britannica’s publishing model and medium: The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition; digital content and distribution has continued since then. In 2005, Nature published a peer review comparing 42 science articles from Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia and found that Wikipedia’s level of accuracy approached that of Britannica.
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How they do it: Salesforce digitizes a considerable degree of customer interactions and makes them accessible for data processing and analysis on its platform. Thereby, Salesforce’s customers can stay on top of their own customer’s needs in an unprecedented way.
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