Many of the most dynamic public companies, from Alibaba to Facebook to Visa, and the most valuable start-ups, such as Airbnb and Uber, are matchmakers that connect one group of customers with another group of customers. Economists call matchmakers multisided platforms because they provide physical or virtual platforms for multiple groups to get together. Dating sites connect people with potential matches, for example, and ride-sharing apps do the same for drivers and riders. Although matchmakers have been around for millennia, they’re becoming more and more popular—and profitable—due to dramatic advances in technology, and a lot of companies that have managed to crack the code of this business model have become today’s power brokers.

Don’t let the flashy successes fool you, though. Starting a matchmaker is one of the toughest business challenges, and almost everyone who tries to build one, fails.

In Matchmakers, David Evans and Richard Schmalensee, two economists who were among the first to analyze multisided platforms and discover their principles, and who’ve consulted for some of the most successful platform businesses in the world, explain how matchmakers work best in practice, why they do what they do, and how entrepreneurs can improve their chances for success.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an investor, a consumer, or an executive, your future will involve more and more multisided platforms, and Matchmakers—rich with stories from platform winners and losers—is the one book you’ll need in order to navigate this appealing but confusing world.

David S. Evans is an economist, business adviser, and entrepreneur. He cofounded, and helps lead, two consulting organizations: Global Economics Group, which provides economic expertise on antitrust and regulatory matters, and Market Platform Dynamics, which advises companies on multisided platform strategies. He is also Chairman of PYMNTS.com, a multisided media and data analytics platform he cofounded. He has consulted for many of the largest multisided platform businesses in the world and served as an adviser to a number of start-up matchmakers. In addition, David has an active academic career. At the University College London he is Executive Director of the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics as well as a visiting professor. He is also a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. David is the author, coauthor, or editor of ten books and has written more than one hundred scholarly articles, many of which address the economics of entrepreneurship, business dynamics, and multisided platforms. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, from which he earned a BA, an MA, and a PhD, all in economics.

Richard Schmalensee is the Howard W. Johnson Professor of Management Emeritus and Professor of Economics Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He served as the John C Head III Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1998 through 2007. He was as a Member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1989 through 1991 and served for 12 years as Director of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. Professor Schmalensee is the author or co-author of 12 books and more than 120 published articles. His research has centered on industrial organization economics and its application to managerial and public policy issues, and he was the 2012 Distinguished Fellow of the Industrial Organization Society. Professor Schmalensee is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has served on the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association and has been a Director of the International Securities Exchange and other corporations. He is currently a Director of the International Data Group and the National Bureau of Economic Research, and is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Resources for the Future. He has testified before Congress and served as a consultant to government agencies and numerous private firms.