Research On Economics Effects Of Exclusive Dealing Of Platform Enterprises

With the rapid development of platform economy,exclusive dealing of platform enterprises is gradually emerging and increasing.Because of the bilateral characteristics,the economic effects of exclusive dealing of platform enterprises are very complex,and the antitrust analysis on it is set apart from the traditional antitrust analysis framework.Hence,to work out its internal reasons,its influence on the benefit of market participants,market competition and social welfare will help antitrust authorities to regular exclusive dealing of platform enterprises reasonably.This paper firstly reviews the domestic and foreign literatures on two-sided market and exclusive dealing in this kind of market.Then it briefly introduces the characteristics and efficient causes of exclusive dealing of platform enterprises and combs the antitrust principles and methods applicable to exclusive dealing of platform enterprises.Finally,taking Hotelling model as the basic framework,the paper analyses the economics effects of exclusive contracts provided by a platform enterprise to prevent sellers from multihoming and discusses the influence of service quality on the economic effects of exclusive dealing of platform enterprises by comparing the equilibrium results with and without considering the service quality of platform enterprises,what' more,it simulates the game between the platform enterprises with and without exclusive dealing by MATLAB.It finds that: firstly,exclusive contracts signed by the platform and sellers have exclusive effects on its competitors to some extent.And it not only can help the platform which provides the exclusive dealing to increase market share,but also may improve the profit of platform enterprises in two-sided market.Secondly,considering the effects on users from both sides,exclusive dealing increases the sellers' surplus and reduce the consumers' surplus,because the platform will set a favorable price to attract all sellers and charge a higher price to buyers.Thirdly,when the marginal cost of the service provided by platform enterprises is relatively high,exclusive dealing of platform enterprises will improve the total social welfare,but on the contrary,when the marginal cost is relatively low,exclusive dealing will damage the social welfare.Lastly,with the upgrading of consumer demand,that consumer utility is positively with the quality of service of platforms,exclusive dealing is more likely to harm to the social welfare.In general,as exclusive contracts don't necessarily make a loss on the social welfare and economic efficiency,its influence on social welfare is uncertain.Therefore,the antitrust authority should pay close attention to the exclusive dealing contracts of platform enterprise as well as analyze issues depending on specific cases.