Beef up Your Competitor: A Model of Advertising Cooperation between Internet Search Engines

We propose a duopoly model of competition between internet search engines endowed with different technologies and study the effects of an agreement where the more advanced firm shares its technology with the inferior one. We show that the superior firm enters the agreement only if it results in a large enough increase in demand for advertising space at the competing .rm and a relatively small improvement of the competitor's search quality. Although the superior firm gains market share, the agreement is beneficial for the inferior firm, as the later firm's additional revenues from a higher advertising demand outweigh its losses due to a smaller user pool. The cooperation is likely to be in line with the advertisers' interests and to be detrimental to users' welfare.Search Engine, Two-Sided Market, Advertising, Strategic Complements, Technology

Technology licensing by advertising supported media platforms: An application to internet search engines

We develop a duopoly model with advertising supported platforms and analyze incentives of a superior firm to license its advanced technologies to an inferior rival. We highlight the role of two technologies characteristic for media platforms: The technology to produce content and to place advertisements. Licensing incentives are driven solely by indirect network effects arising fromthe aversion of users to advertising. We establish a relationship between licensing incentives and the nature of technology, the decision variable on the advertiser side, and the structure of platforms' revenues. Only the technology to place advertisements is licensed. If users are charged for access, licensing incentives vanish. Licensing increases the advertising intensity, benefits advertisers and harms users. Our model provides a rationale for technology-based cooperations between competing platforms, such as the planned Yahoo-Google advertising agreement in 2008. --Technology Licensing,Two-Sided Market,Advertising

Joint Customer Data Acquisition and Sharing among Rivals

It is increasingly observable that in different industries competitors jointly acquire and share customer data. We propose a modified Hotelling model with two-dimensional consumer heterogeneity to analyze the incentives for such agreements and their welfare implications. In our model the incentives of firms for data acquisition and sharing depend on the willingness of consumers to switch brands. Firms jointly collect data on transportation cost parameters when consumers are relatively immobile between brands. However, the firms are unlikely to cooperatively acquire such data, when consumers are relatively mobile. Incentives to share information depend on the portfolio of data firms hold and consumer mobility. Data sharing arises with relatively mobile and immobile consumers - it is neutral for consumers in the former case, but reduces consumer surplus in the latter. Competition authorities ought to scrutinize such cooperation agreements on a case-by-case basis and devote special attention to consumer switching behavior.Information Sharing, Data Acquisition, Price Discrimination

Technologie-Lizenzierung in der Europäischen Wettbewerbskontrolle: ein Überblick

In den letzten Jahren ist die Lizenzierung neuer Software- und Elektronikprodukte in Europa und den USA anhand einiger prominenter Fälle intensiv diskutiert worden. So gab die Europäische Kommission Anfang 2011 erst grünes Licht für die Übernahme des Sicherheitssoftware- Herstellers McAfee durch Intel, nachdem Intel sich verpflichtet hatte, wichtige Informationen über Schnittstellen seiner Produkte offen zu legen und somit die Kompatibilität mit Produkten anderer Hersteller zu gewährleisten. Zuvor spielte Technologie-Lizenzierung in den Qualcomm- und Microsoft-Fällen eine wichtige Rolle. Gleichzeitig wurde der für die Lizenzierung von Technologien relevante europäische Rechtsrahmen angepasst. Neben der Darstellung der einschlägigen ökonomischen Theorien und ausgewählter Entscheidungen der EU-Kommission in Lizenzierungsfällen gibt dieser Artikel einen Überblick über die aktuellen Änderungen im EU-Rechtsrahmen.Technology licensing, Competition

Technology Licensing by Advertising Supported Media Platforms: An Application to Internet Search Engines

O gênero é um termo polissêmico utilizado em diferentes âmbitos e o seu significado se adapta ao contexto no qual é inserido e estudado. Neste trabalho, a abordagem desse termo se restringe ao gênero gramatical. Baseando-nos no trabalho de Schwindt (2019) sobre o português brasileiro, nesta dissertação, fizemos uma análise do sistema de marcação do gênero gramatical da língua espanhola em substantivos terminados em /a/, /e/ e /o/, a partir dos conceitos de disponibilidade e rentabilidade (CORBIN, 1987), sob a ótica da escola estruturalista. Inicialmente, o estudo se justifica pelo fato de muitos falantes associarem o gênero gramatical apenas ao sexo biológico e buscarem justificativas para a utilização da linguagem inclusiva. O objetivo deste trabalho, portanto, é analisar se a língua espanhola possui um caráter sexista pelas suas marcas de feminino e de masculino, bem como o uso do segundo como gênero não marcado. Assim sendo, buscamos analisar quão predizível é o gênero dos substantivos em espanhol. Por um lado, segundo Morera (2011), Dewaele e Véronique (2001), o gênero dos substantivos é idiossincrático e determinado lexicalmente. Por outro lado, Corbett (1991) sustenta a ideia de que falantes nativos têm a habilidade de atribuir gênero aos substantivos da língua, sendo o gênero algo mais transparente aos falantes e menos memorizado e gravado idiossincraticamente no léxico. Dessa forma, buscamos comparar a marcação de gênero em substantivos do espanhol com pesquisas já apresentadas da marcação do português sob a ótica da produtividade morfológica – disponibilidade e rentabilidade. Analisamos, aqui, a marcação de gênero de substantivos em espanhol na linguagem vernacular de mulheres falantes nativas do espanhol peninsular em cinco entrevistas de um canal feminista do Youtube chamado BuzzFeed. Foram analisados cinco vídeos, totalizando 43 minutos de espanhol falado. Os dados analisados justificam a intuição dos falantes sobre um sistema binário – que pareia nomes terminados em /a/ ao feminino e /o/ ao masculino - e os resultados corroboram a hipótese da predizibilidade da marcação de gênero e da incoerência da chamada linguagem inclusiva ou não sexista, visto que seu uso não contempla a produtividade morfológica.Gender is a polysemic term used in different settings and its meaning adapts to the context in which it is inserted and studied. In this essay the approach of this term is restricted to the grammatical genre. Based on Schwindt‘s work (2019) on Brazilian Portuguese, in this dissertation, we performed a marking system analysis of the the Spanish language‘s grammatical genre in nouns ending in / a /, / and / and / or /, from the concepts of availability and profitability (CORBIN, 1987), from structuralist school perspective. Initially, the study is justified by the fact that many speakers associate grammatical gender only with biological sex and seek justifications for the use of inclusive language. The objective of this dissertation, therefore, is to analyze if the Spanish language has a sexist character for its feminine and masculine marks, as well as the use of the second as unmarked gender. Therefore, we seek to analyze how predictable the gender of nouns is in Spanish. On the one hand, according to Morera (2011), Dewaele and Véronique (2001), the genus of nouns is idiosyncratic and lexically determined. On the other hand, Corbett (1991) supports the idea that native speakers have the ability to attribute gender to the nouns of the language, the genre being more transparent to the speakers and less memorized and recorded idiosyncratically in the lexicon. In this way, we seek to compare the gender marking in nouns of Spanish with research already presented on the Portuguese marking under the view of morphological productivity - availability and profitability. Here we analyze the genus marking of nouns in Spanish in the vernacular language of native Spanish speaking women in the peninsular Spanish language in five interviews of a feminist Youtube channel called BuzzFeed. Five videos were analyzed, adding 43 minutes of spoken Spanish. The data analyzed justify the speakers' intuition about a binary system, which ended up in the feminine and / or masculine ending names, and the results corroborate the hypothesis of the predictability of gender marking and the incoherence of the so-called inclusive language or not sexist, since its use does not contemplate the morphological productivity

Complementarities in learning from data: insights from general search

HCERES A, ABS 2International audienceThe ability to make accurate predictions relating to consumer preferences is a key factor of a digital firm's success. Examples include targeted advertisements and, more broadly, business models relying on capturing consumers' attention. The prediction technologies used to learn consumer preferences rely on consumer generated data. Despite the importance of data-driven technologies, there is a lack of knowledge about the precise role that data-scale plays for prediction accuracy. From a policy perspective, a better understanding about the role of data is needed to assess the risks that “big data” might pose for competition. This article highlights potential complementarities between different data dimensions in algorithmic learning. We analyze our hypothesis using search engine data from Yahoo! and provide evidence that more data in the within-user dimension enhances the efficiency of algorithmic learning in the across-user dimension. Our findings suggest that ignoring these complementarities might lead to underestimating scale advantages from data