From transport to street lighting: The emergence of smart city platforms

(EurActiv, 18 Sep 2018) Uber and Airbnb have shown how city services can be transformed by platform offerings. Developing the right platforms will be key for cities to ensure that their economies, environment, and services are fit for the future, writes Eric Woods.

Eric Woods is a research director with Navigant Research. In a new report, Smart City Platforms, he examines the evolution of the global smart city platform market and provides recommendations for cities and suppliers.

The idea of the smart city platform encompasses both the technical aspects of the platform concept and an emerging vision of the city as a service, enabling an innovative ecosystem of urban service providers from a diversity of industries.

As such, the smart city platform is not a single product category but rather an umbrella concept for diverse offerings and bespoke city approaches. Navigant Research defines a smart city platform as an integrated capability for coordinating data, applications, and services at one or more levels across operational domains for multiple stakeholders.

We expect cities to invest more than $4 billion in smart city platforms over the next decade. However, such platforms will underpin a market for smart city services that is estimated to be worth more than $1.5 trillion.

The evolution of smart city platforms

Platforms today are closely associated with the emergence of new virtualised business models that are disrupting many traditional business domains, including retail, transportation, hospitality, and energy.

Uber and Airbnb have already shown how city services can be transformed through platform offerings, but also how contentious such services can be. Many cities are striving to ensure they benefit from such innovations while maintaining appropriate control over the quality of services through new regulations and the refinement of city policy.

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EurActiv, 18 Sep 2018: From transport to street lighting: The emergence of smart city platforms