Cooperation Strategy of Complementors on The Platform: A Study in The YouTube

In this paper, I explore the cooperation strategies among complementors on platforms, which have not been sufficiently analyzed so far despite their importance. In previous studies focusing on platforms, it has been implicitly assumed that firms in the same complementors are in a competitive relationship with each other. However, firms in the same market not only compete, but also cooperate. Particularly on platforms, cooperative behavior often occurs among complementors, since there is a common goal of countering platformers. Therefore, this study identifies the cooperative strategies among complementors on the platform based on a co-branding study, which explores the cooperative strategies among firms. The results of the empirical analysis using YouTube as a case study show that cooperation among complements with similar attributes in the short run and cooperation among firms with different attributes in the long run perform better on the platform.