Document Type

Article

Abstract

With a two-sided model, this paper reports an empirical research investigating online Peer-to-Peer lending marketplaces, PPDai.com in China and Prosper.com in US. We observe that the platform’s profit-maximizing pricing strategies for the agents in the online P2P lending marketplaces are mainly related to the network effects between and within the two sides. Agents’ inter-group and intra-group network externalities depend on the demand-supply relationships, which is unlike the assumptions of negative intra-group network externalities and positive inter-group network externalities in the previous theoretical research of electronic commerce. Besides, as assumed in the theoretical model, it demonstrates significant negative price elasticity of demand and supply on both platforms. Based on the theoretical model and empirical results, we analyze the two platforms’ profit-maximizing pricing strategies, and explain the rationality and deficiency of the strategies. The findings enhance our understanding of the two-sided electronic market, which could shed light on how the platforms make price strategies in this kind of electronic market.

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