Abstract
Technological platforms such as hardware or systems form platform ecosystems, which are communities orchestrated by platform providers, outside complementors such as software providers, and consumers. Previous studies have suggested that a winner-takes-all situation among platform ecosystems could be induced by interactions between complementors and consumers. However, our observation of the Japanese video game market over the last 30 years indicated that complementors (i.e., software providers) usually seek to avoid winner-takes-all situations and, instead, promote symbiotic situations. Using the Lotka–Volterra equations from biology as a reference, we developed a model to understand the competitive behavior of complementors among platform ecosystems. We used a 19-year (1996–2015) dataset on the Japanese video game market and confirmed that complementors took as many actions to create symbiotic situations as they took to create winner-takes-all situations, if not more. Our results show that such actions by complementors are influenced by several factors of platform ecosystems. This study also suggests that certain complementors that contribute to symbiotic co-existence within a platform ecosystem could emerge as keystone firms/companies. These complementors could contribute to the sustainability of platform-based markets and facilitate the co-existence of multiple platform ecosystems.
Highlights
We considered four factors associated with the relationships among platform ecosystems that may influence the actions of complementors
Since this study developed models for empirical analysis based on the Lotka–Volterra equation, we used the term “carrying capacity” as it is
Degree of new participation in the platform. We defined this indicator as follows. [a] We identified two types of complementors in time period s on platform f : complementors kmf,osver which have moved from another platform, and complementors kefn,strance which are new entrants to the video game market. [b] We calculated the rate of provided software by kmf,osver and kefn,strance and set indicators for the degree of new participation in the platform as v3f,Rs ate,Mover = Nkmf,osver, f,s/Nf,s and v3f,Rs ate,Entrance = Nkefn,strance, f,s/Nf,s
Summary
Information society has given rise to platform-based markets. These platforms include hardware platforms such as video game consoles or personal computers, and intermediation platforms on the web. An intermediary platform creates a multi-sided market (or two-sided market if there are two groups, such as buyers and sellers) by acting as an intermediary among participants from multi-sided groups. These have recently been integrated to establish the “platform ecosystem” type [1,2,3]. Researchers of platform ecosystems focus on two functions: the compatibility function and the intermediary function
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