IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/indorg/v97y2024ics0167718724000729.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A model of mobile app and ad platform markets

Author

Listed:
  • Zennyo, Yusuke

Abstract

The mobile application (app) economy comprises two distinct platform markets through which app developers generate revenue: app platform and ad platform markets. When developers monetize their apps by charging users (or through in-app advertising), they must pay commissions to the app platform (or ad platform). Both platform markets are interconnected, as developers choose which market to use for monetization (paid or ad-funded). The model shows that app and ad platforms are substitutes for app developers. Thus, an imbalance between app and ad commissions induces some developers to choose inefficient business models. For example, if the app commission is lower than the ad commission, some ad-friendly developers may choose the paid business model even though they could generate a greater surplus from advertising from a social welfare perspective. This finding highlights the benefits of distinct platforms setting similar commissions. The model is also used to evaluate the impact of a non-price strategy implemented by the app platform to limit the ability of app developers to monetize through advertising. The analysis shows that the app platform can use this non-price strategy to increase its demand at the expense of the ad platform.

Suggested Citation

  • Zennyo, Yusuke, 2024. "A model of mobile app and ad platform markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:97:y:2024:i:c:s0167718724000729
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2024.103117
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718724000729
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2024.103117?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Attila Ambrus & Emilio Calvano & Markus Reisinger, 2016. "Either or Both Competition: A "Two-Sided" Theory of Advertising with Overlapping Viewerships," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 189-222, August.
    2. Francesco Decarolis & Gabriele Rovigatti, 2021. "From Mad Men to Maths Men: Concentration and Buyer Power in Online Advertising," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(10), pages 3299-3327, October.
    3. Heiko Karle & Martin Peitz & Markus Reisinger, 2020. "Segmentation versus Agglomeration: Competition between Platforms with Competitive Sellers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(6), pages 2329-2374.
    4. Jullien, Bruno & Bouvard, Matthieu, 2022. "Fair cost sharing: big tech vs telcos," TSE Working Papers 22-1376, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    5. Yusuke Zennyo, 2022. "Platform Encroachment and Own‐Content Bias," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(3), pages 684-710, September.
    6. Jean-Charles Rochet & Jean Tirole, 2003. "Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 990-1029, June.
    7. Simon P. Anderson & Joshua S. Gans, 2011. "Platform Siphoning: Ad-Avoidance and Media Content," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 1-34, November.
    8. E. Glen Weyl, 2010. "A Price Theory of Multi-sided Platforms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1642-1672, September.
    9. Anna D’Annunzio & Antonio Russo, 2020. "Ad Networks and Consumer Tracking," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(11), pages 5040-5058, November.
    10. Etro, Federico, 2021. "Device-funded vs ad-funded platforms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    11. Simon P. Anderson & Stephen Coate, 2005. "Market Provision of Broadcasting: A Welfare Analysis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 947-972.
    12. Andrei Hagiu, 2009. "Two‐Sided Platforms: Product Variety and Pricing Structures," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 1011-1043, December.
    13. Anna D’Annunzio & Antonio Russo, 2024. "Intermediaries in the Online Advertising Market," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 33-53, January.
    14. Jean‐Charles Rochet & Jean Tirole, 2006. "Two‐sided markets: a progress report," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 645-667, September.
    15. Mark Armstrong, 2006. "Competition in two‐sided markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 668-691, September.
    16. Emilio Calvano & Michele Polo, 2020. "Strategic Differentiation by Business Models: Free-To-Air and Pay-TV," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(625), pages 50-64.
    17. Damien Geradin & Dimitrios Katsifis, 2021. "The Antitrust Case Against the Apple App Store," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 503-585.
    18. Bruno Jullien & Matthieu Bouvard, 2022. "Fair cost sharing: big tech vs telcos," Working Papers hal-03832908, HAL.
    19. Justin P. Johnson, 2017. "The Agency Model and MFN Clauses," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(3), pages 1151-1185.
    20. Benjamin Edelman & Julian Wright, 2015. "Price Coherence and Excessive Intermediation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(3), pages 1283-1328.
    21. Hana Choi & Carl F. Mela & Santiago R. Balseiro & Adam Leary, 2020. "Online Display Advertising Markets: A Literature Review and Future Directions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 556-575, June.
    22. Andrei Hagiu & Tat‐How Teh & Julian Wright, 2022. "Should platforms be allowed to sell on their own marketplaces?," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 53(2), pages 297-327, June.
    23. Jay Pil Choi & Doh‐Shin Jeon, 2023. "Platform design biases in ad‐funded two‐sided markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 54(2), pages 240-267, June.
    24. Jay Pil Choi & Doh-Shin Jeon, 2022. "Platform Design Biases in Ad-Funded Two-Sided Markets," Post-Print hal-04018490, HAL.
    25. Susan Athey & Emilio Calvano & Joshua S. Gans, 2018. "The Impact of Consumer Multi-homing on Advertising Markets and Media Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 1574-1590, April.
    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. Martin Peitz, 2024. "The Economic Theory of Two-Sided Platforms," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2024_584, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    2. Jullien, Bruno & Pavan, Alessandro & Rysman, Marc, 2021. "Two-sided Markets, Pricing, and Network Effects," TSE Working Papers 21-1238, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    3. Jullien, Bruno & Sand-Zantman, Wilfried, 2021. "The Economics of Platforms: A Theory Guide for Competition Policy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Simon P. Anderson & Bruno Jullien, 2015. "The advertising-financed business model in two-sided media markets," Post-Print hal-02866192, HAL.
    5. Martin Peitz, 2025. "Governance and Regulation of Platforms," Springer Books, in: Claude Ménard & Mary M. Shirley (ed.), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, edition 0, chapter 23, pages 565-593, Springer.
    6. Zennyo, Yusuke, 2020. "Freemium competition among ad-sponsored platforms," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    7. Etro, Federico, 2023. "Platform competition with free entry of sellers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. Paul Belleflamme & Martin Peitz, 2018. "Platforms and network effects," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume II, chapter 11, pages 286-317, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Anderson, Simon P. & Peitz, Martin, 2020. "Media see-saws: Winners and losers in platform markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    10. Calvano, Emilio & Polo, Michele, 2021. "Market power, competition and innovation in digital markets: A survey," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    11. Wilfred Amaldoss & Jinzhao Du & Woochoel Shin, 2024. "Pricing Strategy of Competing Media Platforms," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(3), pages 488-505, May.
    12. Doh-Shin Jeon & Nikrooz Nasr, 2016. "News Aggregators and Competition among Newspapers on the Internet," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 91-114, November.
    13. Charles Angelucci & Julia Cagé & Michael Sinkinson, 2024. "Media Competition and News Diets," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 62-102, May.
    14. Charles Angelucci & Julia Cagé, 2019. "Newspapers in Times of Low Advertising Revenues," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 319-364, August.
    15. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Jullien, Bruno & Klimenko, Mikhail, 2021. "Language, internet and platform competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    16. Simon P. Anderson & Martin Peitz, 2023. "Ad Clutter, Time Use, and Media Diversity," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 227-270, May.
    17. Xie, Jiaping & Zhu, Weijun & Wei, Lihong & Liang, Ling, 2021. "Platform competition with partial multi-homing: When both same-side and cross-side network effects exist," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    18. Reisinger, Markus, 2010. "Unique Equilibrium in Two-Part Tariff Competition between Two-Sided Platforms," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 308, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    19. Hui Li & Feng Zhu, 2021. "Information Transparency, Multihoming, and Platform Competition: A Natural Experiment in the Daily Deals Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(7), pages 4384-4407, July.
    20. Emilio Calvano & Bruno Jullien, 2012. "Issues in Online Advertising and Competition Policy: A Two-sided Market Perspective," Chapters, in: Joseph E. Harrington Jr & Yannis Katsoulacos (ed.), Recent Advances in the Analysis of Competition Policy and Regulation, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Platforms; Mobile ecosystem; Mobile applications; Advertising intermediaries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies

    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:eee:indorg:v:97:y:2024:i:c:s0167718724000729. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505551 .

    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.