Digitalization marches on, AI continues its rise—and a handful of tech companies are doing very well indeed. The supremacy of these big tech firms increasingly depends on their ability to stand up and manage digital ecosystems with a rich constellation of “complementors”: firms or individual developers collaborating and co-creating to generate something of value for the end customer.

Such ecosystems are set to become more important for more firms, as economies increasingly rely on digital technologies. That’s why a widening range of companies will need to develop ecosystem strategies based on a clear understanding of what makes an ecosystem successful—whether they are “orchestrators” building the ecosystem, or complementors contributing to and transacting within it.

Two recent developments should prompt reflection on the dilemma between openness and control in the design of ecosystems. On the one hand, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has publicly articulated his vision of, and arguments for, an open AI ecosystem, built around the Llama model family. Albeit in a different domain, this is a striking reversal from Meta’s years-long (and notoriously costly) play for a closed, tightly controlled metaverse. On the other hand, Apple has chosen to enter the metaverse, rebranded as “spatial computing,” with a similar model of strict orchestrator control, built around its VisionPro headset. The spatial computing ecosystem that Apple hopes to foster would give it total control of the hardware and operating system that would enable complementors to sell VR and AR experiences.

What is one to make of these conflicting bets? Apple might be attempting to replicate its exceptional success with the iPhone, leveraging its mettle in creating a user-friendly interface to lock in consumers. However, we argue that an orchestrator’s belief that it must create and control everything itself is, more often than not, a cardinal sin of ecosystem design. Indeed, the lessons from Meta’s foray into the metaverse remain valuable, and applicable beyond web3. First: Total openness and absolute dominance pose a false dilemma for ecosystem orchestrators. And second: Complementors have power to shape the trajectory of a viable, scalable ecosystem.