Some Empirical Aspects of Multi-Sided Platform Industries

Review of Network Economics (RNE), Vol. 2, No. 3, September 2003

19 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2003 Last revised: 29 Jul 2022

See all articles by David S. Evans

David S. Evans

Market Platform Dynamics; Berkeley Research Group, LLC

Date Written: October 5, 2003

Abstract

Multi-sided platform markets have two or more different groups of customers that businesses have to get and keep on board to succeed. These industries range from dating clubs (men and women), to video game consoles (game developers and users), to payment cards (cardholders and merchants), to operating system software (application developers and users). They include some of the most important industries in the economy. A survey of businesses in these industries shows that multi-sided platform businesses devise entry strategies to get multiple sides of the market on board and devise pricing, product, and other competitive strategies to keep multiple customer groups on a common platform that internalizes externalities across members of these groups.

Keywords: economics of multisided platforms, empirical evidence on multisided platforms, survey of multisided platform businesses, pricing by multisided platforms, empricial evidence on two-sided markets

JEL Classification: D4, K0, L1

Suggested Citation

Evans, David S., Some Empirical Aspects of Multi-Sided Platform Industries (October 5, 2003). Review of Network Economics (RNE), Vol. 2, No. 3, September 2003, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=447981 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.447981

David S. Evans (Contact Author)

Market Platform Dynamics ( email )

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Berkeley Research Group, LLC ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://davidsevans.org

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