The influence of giant platform on content diversity

Abstract

Scholars have studied how giant platforms influence on the innovation ecosystem as platform providers (PPs) has grown in large size because of their unique and necessary position in the ICT ecosystem. To find the influence of giant PPs' market power on diversity of CPs and the role of content diversity in the innovation ecosystem, we modeled the platform ecosystem and examined the effect of a PP's expansion on various outcomes by using a simulation model based on genetic algorithm. Results show that, firstly, a PP's expansion do reduce the internal content diversity, secondly, high content diversity influences on increasing in innovation capacity of the platform ecosystem, thirdly, the ratio of CPs that retain their uniqueness of content is positively correlated with content diversity, and lastly, the users' will to find alternative sources of content aids in the recovery of decreased content diversity. This might contribute for policy makers and stakeholders in the platform ecosystem to understand the overall picture of the industry dynamics and the innovation strategy in ecological perspective. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.