earticle

영어

This study examines the impact of a mobile application spinoff on the new companion application adoption and user engagement. We exploit a natural experiment in the launch of a new spun-off companion mobile application to identify the causal effect of spin-off on spun-off companion application adoption and user engagement. In our research context, a mobile advertisement company implemented the mobile application spin-off due to the new platform policy enacted. However, there also existed an application in this company which was not affected by the policy and continued the service without any change. By comparing mobile application usage in these two distinct setups, we demonstrate robust evidence that reveals the impact of the spin-off on spun-off mobile application adoption and user engagement of the application. Our results demonstrate that the spun-off companion application adoption induces users to use the application less frequently as measured by daily active usage. Surprisingly, we find that user engagement, measured by an advertisement click-through-rate, with the spun-off application is significantly increased.