平台横向合并下用户资源整合策略研究

User Resource Integration Strategy under Horizontal Merger of Platforms

摘要: 我国平台经济蓬勃发展，横向合并正成为存量竞争背景下平台企业扩大用户规模的重要手段。本文在考虑市场中存在异质用户的基础上，研究平台横向合并下用户资源整合策略，分别分析了横向合并前、实施用户混同横向合并、实施用户分级横向合并三种情况下的博弈均衡，比较不同情况下平台合并前后的定价及利润变化，探讨平台用户资源整合策略的选择。研究表明：横向合并下平台用户资源整合不存在绝对占优的策略，受到买方交叉网络外部性与卖方平均交叉网络外部性的共同影响，平台实施用户混同横向合并或者用户分级横向合并均有可能成为最优策略。

Abstract: In recent years, platform economy is emerging rapidly and horizontal merger is becoming an important way to expand user scale under the background of stock competition. This paper studies the user resource integration strategy under the horizontal merger of platforms, analyzes the game equilibrium before horizontal merger, pooling horizontal merger, and separating horizontal merger, then compares the pricing and profit changes before and after the merger of platforms in the different cases, and explores the selection of user resource integration strategy based on the consideration that exists heterogeneous users in the market. The study shows that there is no absolutely dominant strategy for the integration of platform user resources under horizontal merger, and the platform may choose pooling or separating and under the influence of buyer’s cross-network externality and seller’s average cross-network externality.