Classroom Companion: Business

Type of service
Examples of information service
Social media services
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, QZone, VKontakte
Music streaming
Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Tidal
Video streaming
Netflix, HBO, Amazon Video, YouTube TV
Web browsers
Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox
Word-editing software
Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Pages
Internet telephony (VoIP)
Skype, Google Voice
Messaging
WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger, SMS
Multiplayer online games
World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2
Travel and accommodation
TripAdvisor, Citymapper, Uber, Airbnb
Online payment
PayPal, Alipay, Google Pay, Apple Pay
Language
Google Translate, Duolingo
News
NY Times, Google News, Reddit
 
Chapter 17 · Digital Markets

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17
simple to distribute them on the international marketplace. However, there may be 
several reasons why some of them are restricted to certain geographical areas, for 
example:
5
Political regulations (e.g., Facebook is not allowed in China)
5
Competition regulations (e.g., Uber is forbidden in several countries)
5
Language (e.g., local newspapers)
5
Local target (e.g., regional transportation apps)
5
Infrastructure limitations (e.g., local network not supporting broadband 
access)
5
Local information (e.g., road, traffic, and weather conditions)
In an article published in Harvard Business Review in 1998, Josef Pine and 
James Gilmore coined the term experience economy (Pine & Gilmore, 
1998
). 
Their argument is that people are willing to pay for the experience of being 
“engaged” in the product they buy. Several information services belong to the 
category of experience goods. Examples of experience goods are movies, inter-
active games, music, and newspaper articles. It is hard to assess the quality of 
an experience good in advance since it is difficult for an individual consumer to 
assess the quality of a specific music track or a movie before it is purchased. To 
give consumers some information about the digital good or service, the pro-
vider may have to give away samples of the product or present evaluations of 
the product by professional reviewers or by feedback from the public. Network 
access, on the other hand, is classified as a search good (Nelson, 
1970
). The 
most important characteristic of a search good is that the quality of the good 
can be assessed before it is purchased. Search goods are more subject to price 
wars and fierce competition than experience goods. Search goods are often 
commodity markets, while experience goods are markets with monopolistic 
competition; see 
7
Chap. 
13
.