earticle

영어

Online platforms frequently modify their product taxonomies to improve market efficiency by lowering consumer search costs and increasing seller/product visibility. This study investigates how digital-goods suppliers strategically respond to platform-initiated taxonomic changes, focusing on mobile application (app) markets. Leveraging a quasi-experimental setting, we analyze the introduction of a new product category ("Shopping") on the Apple App Store in November 2015, which allowed app developers to voluntarily migrate from the existing "Lifestyle" category. Our empirical analysis reveals that apps migrating to the new taxonomy (or category) experienced significantly improved sales performance compared to those that remained. We further find that early movers of the new taxonomy achieved substantially greater performance improvements than late movers. While migration offered potential advantages such as reduced category competition and improved app discoverability, delayed migration was associated with diminishing returns—likely due to changing category dynamics or user behavior consolidation. These results provide empirical evidence that supplier strategies, particularly in terms of response timing, significantly affect outcomes during platform-led taxonomic shifts. The study contributes to the literature on platform strategy and digital marketplaces, offering practical guidance for developers navigating structural changes on digital platforms.