Growing platforms within platforms: How platforms manage the adoption of complementor products in the presence of network effects?

For your marketing

Possible founder application

Use it as a product, platform or behavior mechanism reference rather than a direct forecast for a SaaS funnel.

Reported result

What the study found

Apps with direct network effects are more likely to receive an award. The likelihood rises with developer market share but falls in concentrated segments; in concentrated segments, challenger developers are more likely than leaders to receive the award.

Research question

What the authors investigated

How does a platform owner manage adoption of complementor products that have direct network effects, balancing user-growth benefits against the risk of complementor dominance?

Design

Large-scale observational empirical analysis of Apple's app-promotion decisions; the article tests predictions using app-level data and robustness/alternative specifications.

Sample and setting

Apple iOS App Store game apps released during 60 months from 2012–2016; the resulting complete-data sample is 211,407 games across 20 categories. The outcome is receipt of Apple's Editors' Choice award; multiplayer games proxy direct network effects, with developer market share and segment concentration as contingencies.

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

The publisher page does not state a limitations section; this is therefore not stated by the publisher page fetched in this run.

Research sources

The publisher abstract says the authors test predictions using Apple's promotion of apps and find that network-effects apps are more likely to receive an award, with the effect depending on developer market share and segment concentration. The methods page identifies 211,407 games across 20 categories (2012–2016). Direct publisher-page retrieval was recorded on 2026-10-09; profile summarizes the accessible record and does not claim independent review of inaccessible full text.