How Users Drive Value in Two-Sided Markets: Platform Designs That Matter

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

Cross-period same-side network effects contribute to user stickiness, while within-period cross-side effects persist conditional on stickiness. Using Groupon data, the authors verify the model and identify platform-design choices that can enhance stickiness when cross-period same-side effects are weak.

Research question

What the authors investigated

When is a user-growth strategy effective, and how do users drive value in a two-sided market?

Design

Dynamic model of within-period and cross-period network effects and a two-sided customer-lifetime-value model, estimated and tested with platform panel data; the article also uses an online survey to classify product categories as experience versus search goods.

Sample and setting

Groupon's largest 108 markets from January through December 2012, with LivingSocial used to control for competition; the publisher page also reports a category-classification survey of 818 respondents covering 78 categories.

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

Not stated on the fetched publisher article page; the page reports robustness analyses but does not present a limitations statement in the visible article text.

Research sources

The publisher article states that fast user growth does not necessarily imply user stickiness, develops a dynamic network-effects/CLV2 model, and says: 'Using Groupon data, we verify our insights.' Its empirical-setting section specifies 108 Groupon markets observed from January to December 2012 and the page reports an 818-respondent survey for category classification. 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.