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Author: Wei He Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
With the presence of both switching cost and network externality, this paper builds a two-stage model for competition between two platforms. In stage one, an incumbent platform controls the market as a monopolist and sets a price to acquire a user base. In stage two, a new platform enters the market to compete against the incumbent. We consider a non-strategic competitor with a free product in the benchmark model and also extend the model to allow for a strategic competitor. Our main results show: (1) When the switching cost is relatively high and the network externality is relatively low, the first mover adopts a closed strategy by maintaining a high price in stage two and harvesting profits from its original users. (2) When the switching cost is relatively low and the network externality is relatively high, the first mover adopts an open strategy by setting a low price to acquire more users in stage two, and the first-mover advantage based on the presence of switching cost will become ineffective. Our work rationalizes the coexistence of high competition and high concentration in a market with strong network externality, and thus provides a reasonable explanation for the existing paradox: even though the internet industry is much more competitive than traditional industries, the concentration level of internet industry is still higher than that of traditional industries.
Author: Wei He Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
With the presence of both switching cost and network externality, this paper builds a two-stage model for competition between two platforms. In stage one, an incumbent platform controls the market as a monopolist and sets a price to acquire a user base. In stage two, a new platform enters the market to compete against the incumbent. We consider a non-strategic competitor with a free product in the benchmark model and also extend the model to allow for a strategic competitor. Our main results show: (1) When the switching cost is relatively high and the network externality is relatively low, the first mover adopts a closed strategy by maintaining a high price in stage two and harvesting profits from its original users. (2) When the switching cost is relatively low and the network externality is relatively high, the first mover adopts an open strategy by setting a low price to acquire more users in stage two, and the first-mover advantage based on the presence of switching cost will become ineffective. Our work rationalizes the coexistence of high competition and high concentration in a market with strong network externality, and thus provides a reasonable explanation for the existing paradox: even though the internet industry is much more competitive than traditional industries, the concentration level of internet industry is still higher than that of traditional industries.
Author: David A. Miller Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 26
Book Description
We study duopoly pricing in the market for mobile phone service, which features network externalities, switching costs, and consumer heterogeneity. We introduce a steady state approach that enables a tractable analysis without endgame effects. The model can generate a variety of testable predictions, of which we focus on the comparative statics with respect to switching costs. Using data on the mobile phone service industries in 52 countries, we use the variation in market structure at the time switching costs were suddenly reduced by the regulatory imposition of mobile number portability (MNP). Firms that grew more rapidly prior to MNP respond to MNP by pricing more aggressively; firms facing large competitors respond less aggressively. Exploration of the model and its implications is an object of ongoing research.
Author: Paul Belleflamme Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1108625622 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 275
Book Description
Digital platforms controlled by Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Tencent and Uber have transformed not only the ways we do business, but also the very nature of people's everyday lives. It is of vital importance that we understand the economic principles governing how these platforms operate. This book explains the driving forces behind any platform business with a focus on network effects. The authors use short case studies and real-world applications to explain key concepts such as how platforms manage network effects and which price and non-price strategies they choose. This self-contained text is the first to offer a systematic and formalized account of what platforms are and how they operate, concisely incorporating path-breaking insights in economics over the last twenty years.
Author: Richard Schmalensee Publisher: North Holland ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 1002
Book Description
Determinants of firm and market organization; Analysis of market behavior; Empirical methods and results; International issues and comparision; government intervention in the Marketplace.
Author: Oz Shy Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1139432273 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 264
Book Description
This book introduces upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers to the latest developments in network economics, one of the fastest-growing fields in all industrial organization. Network industries include the Internet, e-mail, telephony, computer hardware and software, music and video players, and service operations in the banking, legal, and airlines industries among many others. The work offers an overview of the subject matter as well as investigations about specific industries. It conveys the essential features of how strategic interactions between firms are affected by network activity, as well as covering social interaction and its influence on consumers' choices of products and services. Virtually no calculus is used in the text, and each chapter ends with a series of exercises and selected references. The text may be used for both one- and two-semester courses.
Author: Jens-Uwe Franck Publisher: Centre on Regulation in Europe asbl (CERRE) ISBN: Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 96
Book Description
With the rise of digital platforms and the natural tendency of markets involving platforms to become concentrated, competition authorities and courts are more frequently in a position to investigate and decide merger and abuse cases that involve platforms. This report provides guidance on how to define markets and on how to assess market power when dealing with two-sided platforms. DEFINITION Competition authorities and courts are well advised to uniformly use a multi-markets approach when defining markets in the context of two-sided platforms. The multi-markets approach is the more flexible instrument compared to the competing single-market approach that defines a single market for both sides of a platform, as the former naturally accounts for different substitution possibilities by the user groups on the two sides of the platform. While one might think of conditions under which a single-market approach could be feasible, the necessary conditions are so severe that it would only be applicable under rare circumstances. To fully appreciate business activities in platform markets from a competition law point of view, and to do justice to competition law’s purpose, which is to protect consumer welfare, the legal concept of a “market” should not be interpreted as requiring a price to be paid by one party to the other. It is not sufficient to consider the activities on the “unpaid side” of the platform only indirectly by way of including them in the competition law analysis of the “paid side” of the platform. Such an approach would exclude certain activities and ensuing positive or negative effects on consumer welfare altogether from the radar of competition law. Instead, competition practice should recognize straightforwardly that there can be “markets” for products offered free of charge, i.e. without monetary consideration by those who receive the product. ASSESSMENT The application of competition law often requires an assessment of market power. Using market shares as indicators of market power, in addition to all the difficulties in standard markets, raises further issues for two-sided platforms. When calculating revenue shares, the only reasonable option is to use the sum of revenues on all sides of the platform. Then, such shares should not be interpreted as market shares as they are aggregated over two interdependent markets. Large revenue shares appear to be a meaningful indicator of market power if all undertakings under consideration serve the same sides. However, they are often not meaningful if undertakings active in the relevant markets follow different business models. Given potentially strong cross-group external effects, market shares are less apt in the context of two-sided platforms to indicate market power (or the lack of it). Barriers to entry are at the core of persistent market power and, thus, the entrenchment of incumbent platforms. They deserve careful examination by competition authorities. Barriers to entry may arise due to users’ coordination failure in the presence of network effect. On two-sided platforms, users on both sides of the market have to coordinate their expectations. Barriers to entry are more likely to be present if an industry does not attract new users and if it does not undergo major technological change. Switching costs and network effects may go hand in hand: consumer switching costs sometimes depend on the number of platform users and, in this case, barriers to entry from consumer switching costs increase with platform size. Since market power is related to barriers to entry, the absence of entry attempts may be seen as an indication of market power. However, entry threats may arise from firms offering quite different services, as long as they provide a new home for users’ attention and needs.
Author: David Easley Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1139490303 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 745
Book Description
Are all film stars linked to Kevin Bacon? Why do the stock markets rise and fall sharply on the strength of a vague rumour? How does gossip spread so quickly? Are we all related through six degrees of separation? There is a growing awareness of the complex networks that pervade modern society. We see them in the rapid growth of the internet, the ease of global communication, the swift spread of news and information, and in the way epidemics and financial crises develop with startling speed and intensity. This introductory book on the new science of networks takes an interdisciplinary approach, using economics, sociology, computing, information science and applied mathematics to address fundamental questions about the links that connect us, and the ways that our decisions can have consequences for others.
Author: Wei He
Author: Wei He
Author: David A. Miller
Author: Irina Suleymanova
Author: Paul Belleflamme
Author: Richard Schmalensee
Author: Oz Shy
Author: Jens-Uwe Franck
Author: David Easley
Author: Oz Shy
Author: Paolo Siciliani