Research On The Pricing Of Two-sided Oligopoly Online Video Platform

In life,one end of the network video platform is connected to the audience,and the other end is connected to the advertiser.Viewers and users watch videos on online video platforms,but often watch advertisements;advertisers advertise to consumers on online video platforms to attract them to buy goods."Audience users-online video platforms-advertisers" constitute a two-sided market.According to data from i Research’s "Report on the Operational Status of China’s Online Video Industry",China’s online video platform mainly relies on advertisers to collect advertising fees for profit.Advertising fee revenue accounts for 80% of the platform’s total revenue.The proportion of viewers ’paid income in the online video platform’s revenue has begun to increase.As of 2018,more than one-third of the online video platform’s operating income comes from the payment of viewers’ users.The profit model of the online video platform has undergone a major change,from a single profit model that relies on advertising fee income to a profit model of advertising fee plus audience payment.Based on the reality of the change of the charging mode of the network video platform,this article analyzes the market equilibrium of the platform unilaterally collecting membership fees from viewers,unilaterally collecting advertising fees from advertisers,and bilaterally charging viewers and advertisers,and discusses the reasons affecting the platform’s charging model.The social welfare under different charging modes of the platform is compared and numerical simulations are performed.The main conclusions of the study are as follows:Firstly,regardless of whether the platform adopts a unilateral or two-sided charging pricing strategy,the platform’s pricing of membership fees and advertising fees,as well as the platform’s profit,will increase as the degree of cross-network externalities between two-sided users increases.In addition,when the platform charges viewers and advertisers bilaterally,cross-network externalities make the platform’s pricing of users on both sides asymmetric,and the platform’s pricing of advertising fees will be higher than that of membership fees.In addition,compared with unilateral charging to advertisers,although collecting membership fees from viewers will reduce advertising fee income,membership fees collected can make up for the lost advertising costs.Secondly,when the degree of platform differentiation is very small,the platform will adopt a pricing strategy of unilateral charging to advertisers;and when the degree of platform differentiation gradually increases beyond a certain threshold,the platform will adopt a pricing strategy of two-sided charging to viewers and advertisers,And will increase platform profits by increasing the degree of platform differentiation.In addition,when the platform adopts a pricing strategy for two-sided fees,the platform will advertise advertising fees higher than membership fees.At the same time,when the platform adopts the pricing strategy of unilateral charging to the audience,the platform profit increases with the degree of differentiation.When the platform adopts the pricing strategy of unilateral charging and two-sided charging to advertisers,the platform’s equilibrium profit decreases first and then increases as the degree of differentiation increases.Finally,from the perspective of social welfare,the platform has the largest social welfare when adopting a two-sided charging pricing strategy,which is higher than the social welfare when unilaterally charging advertisers or unilaterally charging audiences.At the same time,the platform’s behavior to increase the degree of differentiation of the platform in order to increase profits will cause loss of social welfare.