The strategies implemented by digital marketplaces to acquire users in foreign countries

Abstract

While researchers conducted many studies about digital platforms, the specific case of digital marketplaces has been insufficiently investigated. In particular, we do not know much about the strategies to acquire users. We intend to fill in the gap by analysing what strategies are effective for digital marketplaces in the acquisition of users when internationalizing. Our results highlight different strategies for digital marketplaces to acquire foreign users. The digital marketplaces must build a relation of trust with the users and choose the most adapted communication channels. The choice of the locations that have the highest potential number of users appears to be also essential. Finally, relying on partnerships with users and complementors has emerged from the results. Moreover, our investigation allowed to found the specificities of a network of users that influence the implemented strategies to acquire users, namely the differences in the users’ profiles from country to country, and the need to acquire firstly supply-side users in order to achieve the equilibrium between demand and supply.

Date of Award	13 Oct 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Laure Leglise (Supervisor)