Exploring Performance Determinants of China’s Cable Operators and OTT Service Providers in the Era of Digital Convergence—From the Perspective of an Industry Platform

Abstract

This paper investigates key determinants of business performance in China’s video industry in the era of digital convergence. Specifically, we analyze China’s OTT (over-the-top) service providers and cable operators based on the perspective of an industry platform, which acts as the core module of a business ecosystem and is capable of facilitating and coordinating interdependence among different agents. Panel data models are established to empirically explore what factors impact the performance of these two types of players. The findings demonstrate that both platform use and the size of an installed base are crucial for the determinants of the performance of OTT service providers and cable operators. An online video platform can also benefit from an increasing proportion of mobile viewers by implementing a multi-screen strategy. Further, an OTT service provider can profit from the interaction between its installed base and UGC (user-generated content), while cable operators can take advantage of positive feedback between their demand side and supply side.