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The rapid growth of Internet users in recent years transformed the Internet into an important tool in achieving business growth and market development (Zhao et al., 2016). In 2016, the number of Internet users worldwide reached 3 billion; the total Internet economy of G20 reached 4.2 trillion USD, which is higher than the GDP of Germany, the world’s fifth largest economy (Dean et al., 2012). With the rise and development of a new generation of information and communication technology (ICT), such as big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, the Internet has become a new impetus for driving innovation in traditional industries. The Chinese government also introduced the Internet Plus plan to promote the integration of ICT and modern manufacturing and the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial Internet, and Internet finance in China (Wang et al., 2016). Internet Plus is exerting a profound effect on all lifestyles. It will also bring about changes in the construction industry, thereby becoming an engine that drives the transformation and upgrade of this industry. To transform and upgrade the construction industry using Internet Plus, the key is to use Internet thinking to transform the upstream and downstream value chain of the construction industry. This approach entails improved allocation of market resources via the openness and sharing of Internet to facilitate large-scale collaboration. Thus, the construction mode will also change, thereby creating the Internet platform mode of the construction industry. What is the premise and theoretical basis to achieve the platform mode of Internet Plus construction? The essence of the platform mode of Internet Plus construction is Internet services, which means providing construction-related services to various types of participants via the Internet platform. This approach involves gathering resources that are involved in offline construction activities, bringing them online, and making online transactions on offline construction-related services. In this way, this platform becomes a virtual space that promotes or guides service transactions (Xu and Zhang, 2006). Two prerequisites must be met to achieve the platform mode of Internet Plus construction. One of these prerequisites is the servitization of construction, which means breaking down the construction process into a variety of construction services. The other requirement is the use of virtualization to encapsulate construction services as web services and publish them to the Internet platform, which will enable Internet users to find and use such services to attain sharing and collaboration of construction resources. The servitization of construction is the premise and foundation of the platform mode of Internet Plus construction. The product of construction is tangible, but this does not mean that the construction process does not have the characteristics of service. A service is a process that consists of a series of activities with more or less intangible properties that may or may not be associated with a material product (Grönroos, 2000; Kotler et al., 2014). This definition shows that services emphasize on the intangibility of the process. Services are also characterized by the simultaneous occurrence of production and consumption, which cannot be stored. Analysis of the construction process indicates that the design and consultation process of construction bears the typical characteristics of intangibility. The construction process comprises a series of activities with more or less intangible characteristics, which occur during the interaction between construction units and tangible resources. Owners are engaged in the entire construction process; the production Hongwei WANG (✉) School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China; School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China E-mail: hwwang@hust.edu.cn

Is servitization of construction the inevitable choice of Internet Plus construction?