Multihoming and single-homing complementors' responses to intensified between-platform competition: Evidence from the YouTube–Twitch rivalry

Deskripsi

This paper examines how heterogeneous YouTube content creators-specifically, single-homing and multihoming channels-respond to a sudden increase in the exposure of the rival platform, Twitch. Contrary to expectations, I find that multihoming channels reduce their content creation efforts and underperform relative to single-homers. To make sense of these surprising results, I develop a formal model that characterizes the strategic behavior of different types of complementors operating across two platforms with varying levels of user exposure. The model offers a plausible explanation for the observed empirical patterns, suggesting that intensified competition between platforms, as a consequence of their changing exposure, disproportionately incentivizes single-homers to enhance platform value while discouraging multihomers from maintaining the same level of engagement.