Mercari's Success Factors by Analyzing User Review

Abstract

The success of Mercari, a flea market app, has attracted a substantial amount of attention. Flea market application is a kind of platform business where network effects work. In markets with network effects, there is a first mover advantage since a service acquiring high market share develops its competitive advantage. However, Mercari overtook the first mover, and has achieved overwhelming market share. This study attempts to clarify the Mercari's success factors by comparatively analyzing text data of user review among representative flea market apps. We provide new suggestions for platform providers to diffuse their services.