A spreadsheet application platform facilitates accessing a spreadsheet stored using a spreadsheet database at a server computer. The spreadsheet application platform includes a computer-implemented social network, and a publisher may use the social network to publish a spreadsheet so that other users of the social network may subscribe to and access the spreadsheet's data. Further, a subscribed user may generate other spreadsheets that reference the publisher's spreadsheet via the application platform. When a stored value for a cell of the publisher's spreadsheet is updated at the spreadsheet database, the application platform may generate update requests for one or more target spreadsheet cells that reference the updated cell. An update request may indicate that a target cell is to be updated, and the application platform may process a plurality of update requests in parallel to update the stored values for a corresponding plurality of spreadsheet cells.