多市場競爭中音訊與影音 podcast 平台之市場進入策略

Abstract

播客產業在過去幾年經歷了快速成長。除了廣為人知的音訊形式之外，還有影像的形式，並越來越受歡迎。因此，播客產業可以分為兩個市場。最初，沒有任何平台正式進入這兩個市場:Spotify 和 Apple Podcasts 專注於音訊版本，而YouTube 則專注於影像版本。當 Spotify 在 2020 年採取行動，允許創作者上傳視訊版本時，情況有了變化。不久之後，Apple Podcasts 也進行了相同措施，YouTube 也從另一邊擴張。直觀 上，這些行為可能會造成競爭，導致價格下降，並損害其獲利能力;然而，這些平台 都宣佈在2023 年漲價，促使我們研究這個產業觀察背後的理由。 在這項研究中，我們建構了一個賽局理論模型來研究他們的行為。在我們的模型中，有兩個多邊市場，其中有一群可以市場多棲創作者與兩群不重疊的消費者。我們 考慮三種情況:兩個市場都只有一個平台(案例 SS)，只有一個市場有兩個平台(案例 SD)，以及兩個市場都有兩個平台(案例 DD)。這項研究有三個主要發現。首 先，價格在競爭中永遠不會下降。其次，平台在案例 DD 情況下比在案例 SS 情況下更有利可圖。第三，案例 DD 是唯一且雙贏的納許均衡。我們的結果有助於解釋這些平臺的策略與行動。

The podcast industry has experienced rapid growth in the past few years. Besides the well-recognized audio podcasts, there is another version called video podcasts, which has been gaining more popularity recently. Thus, the podcast industry can be divided into two segments. Initially, no podcast platform giants officially entered both markets: Spotify and Apple Podcasts focused on the audio version, while YouTube focused on video podcasts. Things changed when Spotify took action in 2020, allowing creators to upload video podcasts. Before long, Apple Podcasts followed suit, and YouTube expanded from the other side. Intuitively, these actions might create competition, cause a price decrease, and harm their profitability; however, these platforms all announced a price rise in 2023, driving us to study the rationale behind this industry observation. In this study, we construct a game-theoretic model to study their behaviors. In our model, there are two multi-sided markets with a group of multi-homing creators and two groups of non-overlapping customers. We consider three scenarios: both markets have only one platform (case SS), only one market has two platforms (case SD), and both have two platforms (case DD). There are three main findings in this study. First, prices never decrease under competition. Second, platforms are more profitable in the case DD than in the case SS. Third, case DD is a unique win-win equilibrium. Our results thus help explain the strategic moves of these podcast giants.