Threat of Platform-Owner Entry and Complementor Responses: Evidence from the Mobile App Market
We examine one prevalent source of conflict: platform owners’ entry into complementary product spaces. We show that app developers on Google’s Android system are strategic and nimble actors. They respond to the threat of Google’s entry by adjusting both value‐creation and value‐capture strategies. We also show that platform owners could use direct entry to shape innovation directions and encourage variety of complements. Overall, on the one hand, Google’s entry may have pushed complementors into other areas (which might be less lucrative) and strengthened its position in the mobile market. On the other hand, the entry may have reduced wasteful production efforts in the development of redundant applications. The overall welfare implication is thus ambiguous.
