Offering RSS Feeds: Does It Help to Gain Competitive Advantage?
Nowadays, many Websites have adopted the really simple syndication (RSS) technology to deliver online content to visitors. In this paper, I build an analytical model to examine how the offering of RSS feeds impact the number of visitors, total traffic load, and profit of Websites in a competitive se...
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| Format: | text |
| Language: | English |
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Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
2009
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| Online Access: | https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/448 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/1447/viewcontent/OfferingRSSFeeds_07_04_2009.pdf |
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| Institution: | Singapore Management University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | Nowadays, many Websites have adopted the really simple syndication (RSS) technology to deliver online content to visitors. In this paper, I build an analytical model to examine how the offering of RSS feeds impact the number of visitors, total traffic load, and profit of Websites in a competitive setting. I show that although RSS can always attract more visitors, it may reduce the Website's profit. Interestingly, in a competitive market there are cases that the RSS feeds hurt the offering Website but benefit the competing Website instead. The conditions under which these will happen are derived. I also study the simultaneous RSS-adoption game and show that different equilibrium outcomes will appear under different parameter combinations. Applying my findings to the practice, I suggest that offering RSS feeds could become a competitive disadvantage, and that certain types of Websites, such as Websites providing free content, should not offer RSS feeds. |
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