Monetizing Platforms: An Empirical Analysis of Supply and Demand Responses to Entry Costs in Two-Sided Markets
中文摘要
本研究考察在数字平台内将产品推广市场变现的后果，具体而言是 Goodreads.com 上的 Giveaways 项目。我们利用一项自然实验以及 2016 年至 2020 年的细粒度平台数据，考察对内容创作者引入固定进入成本如何影响该双边市场的供给与需求。我们的发现揭示了变现后市场动态的显著变化：(1) 项目总体参与度大幅下降，尤其是在独立出版商和自出版作者中，导致市场集中度上升；(2) 品类多样性下降，热门品类变得更为主导，小众品类则受到挤压；(3) 推广效应加剧，表现为参与图书的评论数量增加但平均评分下降。对评论文本的分析表明，消费者与图书之间的错配增加是驱动这一结果的潜在机制。本研究通过展示进入成本如何重塑市场构成并影响双边市场中的价值创造，推进了平台经济学研究。这些发现为平台设计与政策提供参考，尤其适用于产品存在水平差异化且消费者偏好异质的市场。本文由信息系统领域的 Anindya Ghose 接受。资助：感谢荷兰国家电子基础设施 [Grants 2024/ENW/01764012、EINF-1825、EINF-7628 和 EINF-7946] 以及欧盟 [Next Generation EU funds Component M4.C2, Investment 1.1—CUP J53D2300462] 的财务支持。补充材料：网络附录和数据文件可在 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01390 获取。
Abstract
This study investigates the consequences of monetizing a marketplace for product promotion within a digital platform, specifically the Giveaways program on Goodreads.com. Using a natural experiment and fine-grained platform data from 2016 to 2020, we examine how introducing a fixed entry cost for content creators affected both supply and demand in this two-sided market. Our findings reveal significant shifts in marketplace dynamics after monetization: (1) a substantial decrease in overall program participation, particularly among indie publishers and self-published authors, leading to increased market concentration; (2) reduced genre diversity, with popular genres becoming more dominant at the expense of niche categories; and (3) intensified promotional effects, characterized by higher review volume but lower average ratings for participating books. Analysis of review text suggests an increase in consumer-book mismatches as a potential mechanism driving this outcome. Our study advances platform economics by demonstrating how entry costs reshape marketplace composition and affect value creation in two-sided markets. These findings inform platform design and policy, particularly for markets with horizontally differentiated products and heterogeneous consumer preferences. This paper was accepted by Anindya Ghose, information systems. Funding: Financial support from the Dutch national e-infrastructure [Grants 2024/ENW/01764012, EINF-1825, EINF-7628, and EINF-7946] and the European Union [Next Generation EU funds Component M4.C2, Investment 1.1—CUP J53D2300462] is gratefully acknowledged. Supplemental Material: The web appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01390 .