Influence of search neutrality on the economics of advertisement-financed content - Inria - Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique
Article Dans Une Revue ACM Transactions on Internet Technology Année : 2014

Influence of search neutrality on the economics of advertisement-financed content

Résumé

The recently raised search neutrality debate questions the ranking methods implemented by search engines: when a search is performed, do they (or should they) display the web pages ordered according to the quality-of-experience (relevance) of the content? In this paper, we analyze that question in a setting when content is offered for free, content providers making revenue through advertising. For content providers, determining the amount of advertising to add to their content is a crucial strategic decision. Modeling the trade-off between the revenue per visit and the attractiveness, we investigate the interactions among competing content providers as a non-cooperative game, and consider the equilibrium situations to compare the different ranking policies. Our results indicate that when the search engine is not involved with any high-quality content provider, then it is in its best interest to implement a neutral ranking, which also maximizes user perceived quality-of-experience and favors innovation. On the other hand, if the search engine controls some high-quality content, then favoring it in its ranking and adding more advertisement yields a larger revenue. This is not necessarily at the expense of user perceived quality, but drastically reduces the advertising revenues of the other content providers, hence reducing their chances to innovate.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
ACM_CMTNDA-v2.pdf (266.67 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
Loading...

Dates et versions

hal-00908569 , version 1 (25-11-2013)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-00908569 , version 1

Citer

Pierre Coucheney, Giuseppe d'Acquisto, Patrick Maillé, Maurizio Naldi, Bruno Tuffin. Influence of search neutrality on the economics of advertisement-financed content. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, 2014, pp.20. ⟨hal-00908569⟩
291 Consultations
290 Téléchargements

Partager

More