Cennamo and Santalo (2013) "Platform Competition: Strategic Trade-offs in Platform Markets

24 important questions on Cennamo and Santalo (2013) "Platform Competition: Strategic Trade-offs in Platform Markets

Wherefore do multisided markets emerge?

To mediate transactions between distinct groups of users?

Why is platform competition the concept of network effects, wherein consumers place a higher value on platforms with a large number of users?

Because customers value direct links with other customers or because they anticipate that platforms with more users (larger installed base) will also offer a wider number of variety of complementary products and services

What is a winner-take-all (WTA) outcome?

The platform with the largest number of users will 'tip the market' in its favor.
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Where does a 'get-big-fast' strategy compel platform firms to?

  1. Rapidly acquire and grow their platform's installed base of users
  2. Lock in those users
  3. Undermine the ability of rival platforms to do the same

On which two popular growth strategies identified by the WTA literature do the authors focus on?

  1. Stimulating competition among complementary goods providers ensure that a larger variety of platform applications are developed
  2. Outperforming rivals by securing a larger number of populair applications in exclusivity deals

What is apps market competition (AMC)?

Promoting competiton among application providers

What is apps market competition?

A mechanism platforms use to make their systems more competitive and to enhance their overall competitive positions

How can platform providers influence the degree of AMC?

  1. Licensing policies
  2. Technical support for development programming
  3. Use of 'soft power'inducements

Which influence does a large installed base have?

A large installed base of users creates a larger market for application producers which, in turn, creates a cascade of reinforcing effects.

When does the product life cycle becomes shorter?

As competitors angling for consumers' attention speed up the release of new games with innovative content.

What is one of the main reasons for both users and producers to decide to transact on one platform?

The opportunity for exchange a platform creates

What does a high level of AMC increase/lower?

The value-exchange opportunties for its users and lowers transaction and searching costs by stimulating a larger production of applications which, in turn, attracts a greater number of consumers

What does apps exclusivity capture?

The extent to which a platform's complementary products are denied to its rivals -- developed for and sold only on the focal platform

What is the primary objective of apps exclusivity?

Provide users with high quality applications they will be unable to obtain on other platforms

How can exclusivity ehance a system's competitive position?

Because customers with strong tastes for specific (exclusive) products have no choice but to transact on the platform that controls them

How might a platform reduce its competitors' effective participation in the content and consumer market?

By securing complementary applications with exclusivity agreemetns, and thereby denying access to rivals.

What might facilitate enhanced coordination over the timing and releases and on the type of quality of content an application producer develops?

Contracting application producers into exclusivity whereby a platform can develop close relationships with those producers over time.

Why should platforms encourage high levels of AMC?

To attract as many titles and users as possible and boost market share using indirect network externalities.

How should the potential trade-offs in a hybrid approach be assessed?

In terms of 'the ratio of the subset of activities consistent with one strategy relative to the subset of actions consisten with another strategy'.

What is meant with the choice of distinctive positioning?

Selecting how similar or dissimlar a portfolio of applications shoud be, relative to its rivals'

What can be the consequences when firms with similar content offerings fight over the same set of resources and customers?

This can lead to crowding in the product space, which increases rivalry and drives down performance. As the overlap between markets increases, firms may have the incentive to escalate competition, which can have especially costly consequences in market governed by WTA dynamics.

What is the risk for firms that choose an intermedia postion?

They might fail to reduce competition and fail to position themselves in a market with sufficient demand.

What is the risk of firms offering high distinctiveness?

Firms might develop 'authentic identity' in the market niches they serve and become the preferred choice of the consumers with dedicated preferences.

Why is a U-shaped relationship between distinctive positioning and platform performance suggested?

Because a platform with an intermediate profile of distinctiveness in its system positioning relative to its rivals risks locating ambiguously in the content and consumer market space. If this is the case, its market share performance will fall.

Though risky, a platform that embraces a high degree of distinctive positioning has the potential to accrue higher performance effects than a platform that chooses an intermediate degree of distinctive positioning

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