Peer-to-Peer Sharing in the E-Commerce Market

This study focuses on the e-commerce market and analyzes the pricing behavior of a peer-to-peer platform that intermediates transactions between consumers (individuals). We consider two types of fee rates charged by a platform to consumers. Each consumer type is represented by two vectors, and consumers act depending on the values of these vectors. We investigate how the platform's profit, price of goods, and fee rate are affected by whether the platform charges the fee rate to sellers or buyers. The results indicate that, first, the platform's equilibrium profit is equivalent regardless of whether a fee rate is imposed on sellers or buyers. Second, consumer surplus and social welfare are also equivalent. Finally, the equilibrium price and equilibrium fee rate result in contrasting ones depending on whether sellers or buyers pay the fee. Specifically, when the cost of supply on the seller side increases, the fee rate falls in both cases; however, the price of goods increases more if a platform charges a fee rate to the buyers rather than the sellers.