Tan, YongMeng, Zixuan2020-08-142020-08-142020Meng_washington_0250E_21773.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/45867Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2020This dissertation analyzes the digital platform from two aspects, the platform policy, and the monetization strategies. Based on three different settings, the sharing economy, the user-generated content platform, and the digital game platform, I study how the development of online platforms reshape the consumer decision and the supplier’s choice, and how the online platforms would accommodate for the change. In the first essay, I investigate how the platform-side picture disclosure would influence the consumers’ decision. I find that consumers can better identify the heterogeneous quality when pictures are disclosed as quality signals. However, the efficiency is affected when consumers misinterpret the supplier’s quality from the image. In the second essay, I examine how the peer-based monetary incentive would influence the content generator’s participation. I find that the peer-based monetary incentive increases the content contribution but may have a temporary negative impact as content generators tend to overestimate their ability to monetize the content. The heterogeneous effect on content generators’ intrinsic motivation is also discussed. In the third essay, I study the optimal pricing of the virtual selling strategy, where the premium module can be obtained not only through direct purchase but also through virtual currency earned during excessive gameplay. I build an analytical model to describe the player’s tradeoff of money and time and find a reverse-discrimination effect and a complementary effect, which enable the game provider to provide time discounts to the players, but in the meantime, make more profit. The business implications and theoretical contributions are discussed in each essay.application/pdfen-USnoneBusiness administrationBusiness administrationThesis