Competitive strategies of content platforms in self-operated e-commerce: An analysis based on consumer preference characteristics

Recently, some content platforms, such as TikTok, have penetrated the self-operated e-commerce market (referred to as CSE platforms). Given that consumers are the key to intense competition, how CSE platforms adjust their competitive strategies in this market based on consumer preference characteristics (i.e., basic preference and preference losses) is important. Despite the increasing popularity of the self-operated mode, the competitive strategies of CSE platforms in this market have yet to be explored, particularly in the context of dynamic competition with the continuous entry of new platforms and changing consumer preference characteristics. To address this research gap, we construct a Spokes model of spatial competition with the continuous entry of competing CSE platforms. The results show that consumers' basic preferences moderate the effects of competing platforms’ feature differentiation and social network effects on the profitability of CSE platforms. More importantly, price is not always the dominant driver of consumer choice in this market; instead, consumer preference loss and market share become central. Greater consumer preference loss can leave below-average-share platforms unable to retain consumers even through price reductions. Moreover, the entry of additional CSE platforms mitigates the negative effect of consumer preference loss on platform profits, suggesting that the conventional winner-takes-all view may not fully apply. In addition, the contribution of marginal traffic revenue to platform profitability is not simply increasing, but varies with the number of platforms, platform differentiation, social network effects, and consumer preference loss.