Platform Market Power

Kenneth Bamberger & Orly Lobel

April 20, 2017, International House, UC Berkeley

What is the Digital Platform Economy?• Sharing Economy• Collaborative Economy• Peer-2-Peer Economy (P-2-P)• Human-2-Human (H-2-H)• The Access Economy• The Pooling Economy• The Gig Economy• Mesh Economy

An eco-system driven by wifi tech and data analytics creating large scale multi-sided end user networks

disrupting production, consumption, finance & education

Web 3.0

4 Families of Platforms

Search Engines

Social Networks

Retail

Service

Airbnb in SF

source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/11/09/study-airbnb-had-56-million-impact-on-san-francisco/

Regulatory Challenges

• Tax• Zoning• Employment & Labor Laws• Safety & Health • Equality & Access • Consumer Protection • Liability & Insurance• Licensing & Permitting• Copyright, IP• Privacy Concerns

Reshaping/Eliminating the Traditional Boundaries of Legal Doctrine

A Framework for theFoundational Platform Inquiry:

Beneficial Economic/Tech Innovation?

Or

Undesirable Regulatory Arbitrage?

Platform Pricing

A. Price Fixing & the Platform Employment Structure

B. Algorithm Bots & Price Discrimination

C. Predatory Pricing Claims“growth first, revenue later”

Market Dominance

A. First Mover Advantage – “Category Kings” B. Switching Costs & Lock-In

C. Scale & Network Effects

Platform Big Data

A. Big Data as Competitive AdvantageB. Expansion into New MarketsC. Privacy & Competition

Platform Market Power

Kenneth Bamberger & Orly Lobel

Thank You!

April 20, 2017, International House, UC Berkeley