The Bit-Products Exchange Value

As the virtual product carrying information resources, the Bit-product is a kind of information products with the bit or the bit-stream form. It has the special cost structure of almost zero marginal cost, which makes some classic economic theory fails. Although the labor time of production invented into the Bit-product copies is almost zero, the use-value of copies is the same as the original product. And the producers get a certain amount of exchange value from the copies sales. This phenomenon has cast doubts on the traditional theory that the value basis of products is the human general labor. Meanwhile, the presence of network externalities in some Bit-products results the quantity of the Bit-products’value is no longer only determined by the production process like the material products, but is affected by the processes of exchange and consumption.The failure of the traditional exchange value theory makes the evaluation and pricing of the Bit-products in the market lack the theoretical foundation. From the view of the producers, since a certain cost is invented on the creation and production of the original Bit-product, they hope to get some amount of exchange value through the Bit-products sales to ensure the capital recovery and earnings. But form the point of the consumers, since the cost of the Bit-product copies is almost zero, the products should be provided to the users for free. They throw doubt on the rationality of the Bit-products pricing, which lead to the producers face a dilemma in setting prices. The one hand, the price that ensure the capital recovery may reduce uses’acceptance and hinder the market early development to make the products mortality; on the other hand, the lower price or free products may rapidly expand market to improve the product utility, but can not guarantee the cost recovery. The lack of a clear understanding of the nature of the Bit-product exchange value, the mechanism of the value exchange and the way of value realization, results the difficulty of establishing the profitable model in the Bit-products market. Many producers postpone the profitability time of Bit-products, which extends the exchange value chain. So what kind of intangible resources are accumulated in the early low-price or free period and how to transform them to the expected revenue-the monetary exchange value in the future, become the worthy research point.In addition, some exchange behaviors with the non-profitable purpose are appeared in the Bit-products market. They let people re-examine the meaning of the "vale" and think the expression of exchange value in these behaviors. Based on these new phenomena and contradictions, what kinds of exchange forms appear in the Bit-products market, what are the value exchange process and the nature of exchange value in different exchange form with the comparison to the material products and how the exchange value is realized? What the new features arise compared to the material product? These questions provoke us to investigate and study.The obtained economics researches about the exchange behaviors ware generally based on the material products characteristics. It was decided by the fact that the exchange objects almost are the material products in the industrial age. In order to distinguish from other existing economic theory and combine with the most important feature of the Bit-products, some scholars proposed Bit Economy and defined the Bit-products as one kind of information products with the bit or bit stream form. After the contrastive analysis on the exchange object, the exchange principle and the exchange goal of various types of exchange such as commodity exchange, social exchange, gift exchange and knowledge sharing, this study has affirmed the referential significance of these existing theories on the research about the exchange value of the Bit-products. In the studies of the concept of Bit-products exchange value and the empirical researches of the information products value, some scholars defined the exchange value of the information products as the evaluation of objective use-value. And the empirical work helped people to find the objective criteria to evaluate the value of information products and further confirm the exchange value. But the above study didn’t systematically analyze the concept and the nature of the Bit-product’s exchange value.Based on the existing studies on the value exchange process of the Bit-products, in the researches about the exchange for the profitable purpose, some scholars focused on the information copyright trading and revealed the patterns and rules of the trading. And other scholars explored the problem how to reduce the transaction costs of copyright trading. But the above discussions on the value were limited to the value assessment before the copyright trading and didn’t show the value exchange mechanism of this exchange form. The nature of the exchange value and the way how the exchange value is realized were also ignored. In the face of many kinds of low-price or even free Bit-products appearing in the market, some scholars explored the way how to accumulate the trading opportunities and increase the overall revenue in the future. But the points of attention focused on the pricing strategies that failed to help product providers recognize that the extended exchange value chain existing behind the low-price and free trading. Meanwhile, due to the lack of the researches about the realization mechanism of exchange value and the influence factors in this extended chain, it is not conductive to guide the product providers establish an appropriate profit model to achieve the profit goal.In the researches about the exchange for the non-profitable purpose, many studies explored the exchange purposes of the network community members. But most extracted purposes such as self-efficacy, sense of belonging etc., were the members’own subjective feelings, and researchers didn’t deeply think what virtual resources got from this exchange form leaded to the above feelings. So it is not propitious for the network community operators to take different reward strengthening mechanisms to motivate the non-profitable exchange behaviors, promoting the creation and sharing of the Bit-products. On the other hand, most researchers only established up the conceptual model to discuss the purposes of the non-profitable exchange, it is not helpful to collect the data about the quantity of value used for tracking and observation.Under the above reality and theoretical background, the systematically study about the Bit-products exchange value is very important and necessary. In order to reveal the Bit-products’exchange conditions and the nature of exchange value and complement the existing exchange value and Bit Economy theory systems; and help the Bit-product market participants deeply understand the realization methods of exchange value so as to manage the market trading and make the appropriate pricing strategy. Firstly, this thesis introduces the concept of the Bit-product from the angles of the narrow and broad sense. And discusses the scope of the traditional exchange value concept and points out it has the limitations to describe the Bit-product exchange value. So the study scope of the Bit-product exchange value should return to the field of products exchange from commodity exchange. And then divides the exchange behaviors of Bit-products into the forms of the profitable exchange and the non-profitable exchange according to the exchange purpose. After that dialectically analyzes the value exchange mechanism, the nature of exchange value and the way how to realize the exchange value in different exchange form.(1) The research on the exchange value in the profitable exchange of the Bit-products. Firstly, analyzes the value exchange mechanism about the copyright value structure and the exchange conditions of the profitable exchange. Secondly, based on the qualitative description about the exchange value, respectively calculates the single and the average quantity of the exchange value. And then points out the necessity of the study on the latter. Thirdly, in order to understanding the phenomenon that many kinds of low-price and free Bit-products appear in the market from the angle of value accumulating and transforming, reveals the presence of the opportunity value in the extended exchange value chain which signifies the trade probability in the future. Finally, builds a mathematical model to focus on the way how the opportunity value transform to the monetary exchange value. That will guide the product providers to establish the appropriate profit model to achieve the profit goal.This paper argues that the exchange condition of the profitable exchange of the Bit-products is the area enclosed by the cost curve and the utility value curve. With the comparison to the material products, the exchange condition area extends in horizontal and vertical direction because the exchange limit can be the Bit-products’average cost or marginal cost curve. The nature of the exchange value in the profitable exchange is the social useful labor which is deployed to the departments. So it is the same as the exchange value in the traditional commodity exchange. The copyright valve structure of the Bit-products is the base of the profitable exchange, and the root cause of the copyright valve structure appearance is that the innovative labor put into the production has particularity and the appearance condition is the cost structure of the Bit-products. The exchange value of every Bit-product copy constitutes the innovative labor value of the original product. So it is necessary to study the average exchange value quantity of many exchanges. The exchange valve chain is extended in the profitable exchange and the accumulated opportunity value in the chain has the expression of the potential consumers scale and the users’ purchasing willingness. It can be transformed to the monetary exchange value through the cultivation of high-quality user, the direct network externalities and the cross-network externalities. That makes the profitable exchange limit could be the Bit-products marginal cost curve and a large number of low-cost or even free Bit-products appear in the market for a long time. Compared in the situation that the value of Bit-product is transformed into monetary exchange value in a single exchange, this way of accumulating opportunity value may increase the total money at last. So as far as Bit-products are concerned, the social useful value created by the innovative labor invented into the product is influenced by the process of use and consume in the market.(2) The research on the exchange value in the non-profitable exchange of the Bit-products. Firstly, based on the analysis of the exchange objects, the process and the performance of the non-profitable exchange behavior, explores the mechanism of value exchange in the non-profitable exchange. The analysis is given from the aspects of exchange condition and the value feedback mechanism based on the propagation model. Secondly, describes the nature and the structure of the exchange value in the non-profitable exchange. And then for the purpose of overcoming the ambiguity of the measurement and help network community operators collect the value data for tracking and observation, establishes the model to measure the exchange value. Thirdly, in order to study how the exchange value meets the people’s different high-level psychological need and guide the network community operators to take different reward strengthening mechanisms to motivate the non-profitable exchange behaviors, meanwhile verify the scientificity of the exchange value measurement, sets up the empirical model of individual time value realization. Finally, establishes the model of the non-profitable exchange mechanism based on the exchange value measurement to research the influence factors in the process of exchange value realization.This paper concludes that the non-profitable exchange of the Bit-products is based on the principle of reciprocity and the mutual trust. Two sides usually don’t bargain and the feelings of obligation, gratitude and trust will generate after the exchanges. The ratio of exchange value quantity is not certain. The payback is based on the result expectation and don’t need to comply with the uniform social standard, only settle to two sides’mutual satisfactions. The exchange value can be measured with the individual time value, which is based on the individual useful labor. That reflects the individual free labor invented into the Bit-products production has individual usefulness. So the nature of the exchange value in the non-profitable exchange of Bit-products is different from the traditional commodity’s exchange value. The measurement of the exchange value in the non-profitable exchange can be divided into three dimensions:the relationship embeddability, the structure embeddability and the cognitive embeddability. The process of individual time value realization is that the people’s different high-level psychological need is satisfied with these three dimensions. And the realization process is affected by several influence factors, including the factors of creator, consumer and product. The innovations of this study are shown as follows:Firstly, this thesis reveals that there are two forms of exchange in the Bit-product market:the profitable exchange and the non-profitable exchange. So the study scope of the exchange value of Bit-products should be return to the field of product exchange from traditional commodity exchange.Secondly, this paper gives the systematic analysis of the value exchange mechanism and the nature of the exchange value in two forms of Bit-products exchange. The research results are contrasted with the traditional exchange value theories and reveal the basis of the value in different exchange forms.Thirdly, the study reveals the presence of opportunity value in the extended exchange value chain and explores how the opportunity value transform to the monetary exchange value in the profitable exchange. So as to explain the root cause and basic condition that many low-cost or even free Bit-products appear in the market. Meanwhile guides the product providers how to profit through promoting products.Fourthly, drawing on social capital theories and complex network theories, this paper establishes the model to measure the exchange value of Bit-products in the ron-profitable exchange. Based on this measurement, studies how different dimensions of exchange value satisfy people’s high-level psychological needs and what factors influence the process of value realization. So as to direct the virtual community operators to adopt the relevant measures to drive community members actively create the Bit-products and exchange them with non-profitable purpose. That will be favorable toward promoting the growth of community interaction and innovation.