IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-21-01074.html

Third parties in the app market and economics of privacy

Author

Listed:
  • Grazia Cecere

    (Institut Mines Telecom, Business School, LITEM)

  • Vincent Lefrere

    (Institut Mines Telecom, Business School, LITEM)

  • Fabrice Le Guel

    (Université Paris-Saclay, RITM)

Abstract

In the mobile applications market, the majority of mobile apps are free to download. We focus on some special features of this market such as access to specific user data and growing importance of third parties. Many apps features and in particular advertising, business analytics are offered via third parties which are embedded into the apps. This third parties market is hidden to consumers but it offers an important value added to app functionalities. We investigate whether personal data are more likely to be collected by apps that use third parties such as firms offering social network services or access to advanced services. We find that apps that are associated with big third parties are less likely to collect personal data. The results suggest that big firms have the competences to extract value from data without collecting too much personal data.

Suggested Citation

  • Grazia Cecere & Vincent Lefrere & Fabrice Le Guel, 2022. "Third parties in the app market and economics of privacy," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(2), pages 1040-1049.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-21-01074
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2022/Volume42/EB-22-V42-I2-P88.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anindya Ghose & Sang Pil Han, 2014. "Estimating Demand for Mobile Applications in the New Economy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(6), pages 1470-1488, June.
    2. Stefano Comino & Fabio M. Manenti & Franco Mariuzzo, 2019. "Updates management in mobile applications: iTunes versus Google Play," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 392-419, June.
    3. Maximilian Schäfer & Geza Sapi, 2020. "Learning from Data and Network Effects: The Example of Internet Search," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1894, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Subrahmanyam Aditya Karanam & Ashish Agarwal & Anitesh Barua, 2025. "Follow Your Heart or Listen to Users? The Case of Mobile App Design," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 36(3), pages 1846-1870, September.
    2. Raveesh Mayya & Siva Viswanathan, 2025. "Delaying Informed Consent: An Empirical Investigation of Mobile Apps’ Upgrade Decisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 71(8), pages 7113-7135, August.
    3. Dominik Gutt & Jürgen Neumann & Wael Jabr & Dennis Kundisch, 2020. "The Fate of the App: Economic Implications of Updating under Reputation Resetting," Working Papers Dissertations 76, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    4. Feiyan Lin & Jing Zhao & Maomao Chi, 2022. "A Study on Temporal Effects of Different Types of Mobile Application Updates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-21, January.
    5. Enache, Andreea & Friberg, Richard & Wiklander, Magnus, 2023. "Demand for in-app purchases in mobile apps—A difference-in-difference approach," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    6. Subrahmanyam Aditya Karanam & Ashish Agarwal & Anitesh Barua, 2023. "Design for Social Sharing: The Case of Mobile Apps," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 721-743, June.
    7. Kang, Hye Young, 2022. "Technological engagement of women entrepreneurs on online digital platforms: Evidence from the Apple iOS App Store," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    8. Shaheer, Noman Ahmed & Li, Sali, 2020. "The CAGE around cyberspace? How digital innovations internationalize in a virtual world," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).
    9. Mohsen Jozani & Charles Zhechao Liu & Hongyi Zhu & Long Liu & Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, 2025. "A Network Analysis of Mobile App Top Chart Appearance and Survival," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 27(6), pages 2359-2381, December.
    10. Stephanie Lee & Georgios Alaveras & Pai-Ling Yin, 2025. "Click versus Tap: The Substitution Effects of Smartphones on Computers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 66(1), pages 89-107, January.
    11. Sarthak Sengupta & Arvind Shroff & Anurika Vaish, 2026. "Fantasy sports platform growth and revenue diversification: Dream11’s strategic play in the virtual gaming arena," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(1), pages 76-92, February.
    12. Arindam Banerjee & Tanushri Banerjee, 2017. "Determinants of Analytics Process Adoption in Emerging Economies: Perspectives from the Marketing Domain in India," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 42(2), pages 95-110, June.
    13. Bergemann, Dirk & Ottaviani, Marco, 2021. "Information Markets and Nonmarkets," CEPR Discussion Papers 16459, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Pengxiang Zhang & Jingtao Yi & Chao Niu & Eric Yanfei Zhao & Sali Li, 2025. "User language and cultural product innovation: insights from the global mobile gaming industry," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 56(8), pages 1050-1068, October.
    15. Burlea-Schiopoiu, Adriana & Puiu, Silvia & Dinu, Adina, 2022. "The impact of food delivery applications on Romanian consumers’ behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).
    16. Moonwon Chung & Luv Sharma & Manoj K. Malhotra, 2023. "Impact of Modularity Design on Mobile App Launch Success," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 756-774, March.
    17. Yiting Deng & Anja Lambrecht & Yongdong Liu, 2023. "Spillover Effects and Freemium Strategy in the Mobile App Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(9), pages 5018-5041, September.
    18. Numminen, Emil & Sällberg, Henrik & Wang, Shujun, 2022. "The impact of app revenue model choices for app revenues: A study of apps since their initial App Store launch," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 325-336.
    19. Bradlow, Eric T. & Gangwar, Manish & Kopalle, Praveen & Voleti, Sudhir, 2017. "The Role of Big Data and Predictive Analytics in Retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 79-95.
    20. Shaheer, Noman & Chen, Yu & Kim, Hoik & Li, Sali, 2024. "Disguise or disclose? How identities of individual entrepreneurs on digital platforms influence their international success," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy
    • M3 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-21-01074. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.