Investigating Factors Affecting Platform Businesses During the Coronavirus Crisis

The aim of the present research was to investigate factors affecting platform businesses during the Coronavirus crisis and the method of analyzing the factors being the main question.  A developmental, descriptive-survey research was conducted. The statistical population included ten purposefully selected experts in the field of digital and platform businesses. After determining primary indexes with a literature review and filtering indexes using the Delphi technique, data was analyzed through AHP approach in the first phase and by TOPSIS approach in the second phase.  On the basis of research findings, ranking of indexes were determined and put in order of priority. The research obtained from the AHP technique showed that the three most important indexes in the field of platform businesses during the Coronavirus were lack of presence in public places to prevent virus transmission, possibility of seeing different products, lack of need for exiting the home. In addition, results obtained from the TOPSIS technique for ranking platforms on the bases of the factors affecting platform businesses under the condition of Coronavirus pandemic showed that the Instagram platform ranked first, Telegram ranked second followed by Facebook.