Digital Platform M&A Strategy in Two-Sided Markets: A Data-Driven Approach Using Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-770-0_15How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Digital platform; M&As; Startup

Abstract

Digital platforms play a crucial role in the digital economy, with mergers and acquisitions (M&As) becoming more frequent and showing distinct characteristics compared to traditional markets. We examine 190 M&A cases involving Chinese digital platforms from 2003 to 2024, with a particular focus on how startup acquisitions contribute to the growth of these platforms. The findings show that Chinese platforms are generally younger and tend to engage in larger M&As. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the study identifies seven distinct types of M&As. The empirical results indicate that during the growth phase M&As primarily target user resources and data to enhance network effects and algorithms. In the maturity phase, M&As focus on ecosystem development, integrating upstream and downstream operations. Startup acquisitions are mainly aimed at technological integration, market expansion, or rapid acquisition of user data from emerging markets to establish competitive barriers. Startup acquisitions often lead to the integration of startup products into dominant platform ecosystems.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Sihao Xing
AU  - Wanyu Luo
AU  - Weibin Deng
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/06/26
TI  - Digital Platform M&A Strategy in Two-Sided Markets: A Data-Driven Approach Using Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 3rd International Conference on Digital Economy and Management Science (CDEMS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 116
EP  - 122
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-770-0_15
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-770-0_15
ID  - Xing2025
ER  -