The Case of iOS and Android: Applying System Dynamics to Digital Business Platforms

Abstract

Platforms are multi-sided marketplaces that bring together groups of users that would otherwise not have been able to connect or transact. The app markets for Apple iOS and Google Android are examples of such markets. System dynamics is a powerful method to gain useful insight into environments of dynamic complexity and policy resistance. In this paper, we argue that adapted to the context of digital business platforms, the practice of system dynamics facilitates understanding of the role of incentives in such marketplaces for increasing participation, value generation, and market growth. In particular, we describe our efforts to simulate the market competition between iOS and Android in terms of the interacting markets for devices and their apps.

Evolutionary game analysis of digital platform monopoly and market supervision from the perspective of system dynamics

“…The core of SD is to study the system structure by constructing structural flow diagrams and conducting simulation experiments using Vensim PLE [1,7] . Based on the above causality model and system feedback loop analysis, a system dynamics flow diagram for digital platform enterprises and market regulators was constructed, which includes two flow level variables, two flow rate variables, four auxiliary variables, and eight constants, and the model is shown in Figure 2.…”