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Lecture 15 Dynamics of Platforms
Lecture 15 Dynamics of Platforms
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Introduction
Last time: introduced basic ideas about platforms,
network effects, competition and platform pricing.
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The Griliches “S-Curve”
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Percentage of corn acreage planted to hybrid seed, from Griliches (1957, 1960).
Spread of Hybrid Corn
5
The Griliches “S-Curve”
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Percentage of corn acreage planted to hybrid seed, from Griliches (1957, 1960).
Technology Adoption Curves
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Winner-Take-All?
In the presence of relatively strong network effects,
we argued last time that one may expect a single
platform or marketplace to emerge as dominant.
Not always the case
Christies and Sotheby’s in auction markets
NYSE and NASDAQ in public equities
Craigslist and eBay in consumer-consumer selling
Can we say more about when, why and how
competition between platforms “tips”?
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Tipping in Online Auctions
Online auctions as an example
Many early entrants to online consumer auctions.
Yet most countries tipped: by 2001, eBay had 65% US
market share, and dominated in Europe.
Yahoo! exited Europe in 2002, US in 2007, but quickly
established a dominant position in Japan.
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Bell versus Competitors
From Markus Mobius (2001): “Death Through Success: The Rise and Fall of Local
Service Competition at the Turn of the Century 13
Local and Global Network Effects
AT&T and independents adopted different strategies.
AT&T developed its network with the aim of national
interconnection: investment in “long lines”, uniform and
high standards for local networks.
Independents focused on local interconnection, less
investment in long lines, inter-city calls.
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Entry and Dominant Platforms
Network effects can make it hard to directly compete
with a dominant platform. When can there be
successful entry?
“Niche” entry: picks off specialized users or sub-market.
Disruptive entry might come in from a different angle.
Disruptive entry can follow a technological shift.
Examples?
Consider as a case study the evolution of financial
markets for public equities after introduction of
electronic trading.
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Financial Exchanges
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Current fragmented market structure in trading of public equities
Financial Exchanges
Electronic marketplaces facilitate
Faster, smaller, larger number of trades
New entry and fragmented market structure
Should we expect/hope for market to “tip”?
Competing: lower fees, more innovation
Consolidated: better coordination, matching of offers.
In this setting, regulatory decisions can have
substantial effect, e.g. force orders to be displayed
in all markets, etc.
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Maturation of Platforms
S-curve logic suggests user base and usage
eventually will reach saturation or growth limit.
Platform users exit as well as join
Should really think of user growth as having more
adopters than exiters; subsequently this may reverse.
Questions
Can we identify patterns of how platforms/markets
change as they mature?
Which users persist and become more active (early
adopters, late adopters?), and which users exit?
Two case studies: Wikipedia and eBay.
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Articles on Wikipedia
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Article Growth on Wikipedia
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Active Editors on Wikipedia
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New Editors on Wikipedia
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Declining Rates of Survival
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Edits and “Reverts”
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Wikipedia
Why slowing growth (Suh et al., 2009)
“Among various factors, our study suggests that the followings may have affected the
growth of Wikipedia: (a) the growing resistance to new content especially when this is
coming from occasional editors, (b) the greater overhead imposed by the costs for
coordination and bureaucracy, and (c) editors are running out of easy topics.”
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Stock vs Flow Network Effects
Wikipedia: users today benefit from having good editors
today, but also from having good editors in the past.
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Wikipedia Readers
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Active Sellers on eBay
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0 31
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Maturation of eBay
Typical pattern of rapid growth followed by declining
entry and leveling off of activity.
12000
10000
8000
New Sellers
6000
4000
2000
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
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Survival of Sellers on eBay
1
0.9
0.8
entry in 2000
0.7 entry in 2002
entry in 2004
0.6 entry in 2006
entry in 2008
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 34
Seller Performance on eBay
1.2
1.15
1.1
1.05
1
entry in 2000
0.950000000000001 entry in 2003
entry in 2006
entry in 2008
0.900000000000001
0.850000000000001
0.800000000000001
0.750000000000001
0.700000000000001
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
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Sale probability of different eBay cohorts relative to other listings in the same quarter
Performance of eBay Sellers
4.1
3.9
3.8
log(price+shipping) - mean
3.7
pre-2000
3.6
2000
2003
3.5 2006
2008
3.4
3.3
3.2
3.1
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
log(Q) - mean
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Country comparisons (eBay)
Size of Entry Cohorts Relative Survival Rates
14000 0.00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
12000
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
-0.05
10000
8000 -0.10
6000
-0.15
4000
2000
-0.20
0
00
02
04
06
08
10
-0.25
20
20
20
20
20
20
US UK DE 37
US UK DE
Summary
Platform/marketplace growth and maturation often
exhibits a set of empirical regularities, such as
Rapid “snowball” adoption and subsequent maturation.
Differences in the survival and performance of early and
later cohorts of adopters (explanations perhaps less clear).
Distinction between flow and stock interactions useful for
thinking about participation of different user groups.
Platform/marketplace competition
Dynamics of tipping are not necessarily that well
understood, but some suggestive evidence.
Entry against a dominant platform tends to be either niche,
or come about indirectly or following a technological shift.
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