云服务环境下的互联网市场结构变迁

在规模经济和网络外部性效应作用下,互联网市场日趋走向"赢者通吃"的垄断型市场结构.然而,云服务的出现降低了竞争门槛并改变了企业成本结构,使在位企业垄断地位受到巨大冲击.本文通过分析"自建服务"和"云服务"两种服务模式特点,建立了在位垄断企业和潜在竞争企业间的市场竞争模型,并提出三个重要命题,研究发现:云服务成本结构、转换成本和市场规模等变量共同影响在位企业和竞争企业的微观市场行为,并最终决定宏观市场结构.本文为理解新兴技术条件下的互联网市场运行机制提供了理论基础.

The transformation on market structures of internet industries under the environment of cloud services

In the light of scale economy and network externality, internet markets go toward the monopoly market structure under the effect of "winner-take-all". However, cloud services, which lower the entry-barriers and change the cost structures of firms, greatly shake the monopoly of the incumbent firm. In this paper, the cost features of both self-build service and cloud service modes are discussed. Then, the game models of the competition of the incumbent monopoly firm and the potential entrant firms are established, from which three key propositions are proposed. It is revealed that, under the condition of cloud services, the internet markets possibly turn into three different market structures of monopoly, competitive monopoly and competitive. Finally, the impacts of market conditions, such as service costs, output capacity, switching costs, and market scales, are analyzed and the managerial insights are uncovered. This study lay the foundation of the operating mechanisms of internet markets in the environment of the emerging information technology.