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Prioritization vs. congestion on platforms: evidence from Amazon's Twitch.tv.

This article studies the efficient use of prioritizing certain content over others in Amazon's Twitch.tv, a live streaming service, taking into account the trade‐off between entry and congestion. I specify and estimate supply and demand models for live video, and a congestion model. Using technologi...

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Published in:RAND Journal of Economics (Wiley-Blackwell) Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 328 - 356
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Jun2022
Subjects:
Supply & demand
Counterfactuals (Logic)
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Prioritization vs. congestion on platforms: evidence from Amazon's Twitch.tv.
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        Supply & demand
        Counterfactuals (Logic)
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          Supply & demand
          Counterfactuals (Logic)
      ab: This article studies the efficient use of prioritizing certain content over others in Amazon's Twitch.tv, a live streaming service, taking into account the trade‐off between entry and congestion. I specify and estimate supply and demand models for live video, and a congestion model. Using technological shocks, I identify congestion costs for content providers and their consumers. Using shocks in prioritization, I identify its benefits. With estimated preferences and technological parameters, I construct counterfactuals. Without congestion, demand doubles. A supply‐side Pigouvian tax on traffic is preferred to a demand‐side one. Without prioritization, consumer welfare drops by 10%.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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