Impact of the General Data Protection Regulation on the Global Mobile App Market: Digital Trade Implications of Data Protection and Privacy Regulations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lia, Ziru; Lee, Gunwoong; Raghu, T. S.; Shic, Zhan (Michael)
• 署名单位: Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Downtown Phoenix; Korea University; Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Downtown Phoenix
• 刊物名称: INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7047
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.2022.0421
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: E-commerce; online; PERSONALIZATION; ECONOMICS; PARADOX

摘要

Although regional data protection and privacy regimes are often cited as major barriers to crossborder digital trade, mitigating consumer privacy concerns through regulations can potentially increase the demand for foreign digital products or services. This study presents empirical evidence on this issue by examining the impact of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the global mobile app market. We construct a comprehensive data set of apps distributed by Apple's App Store over the 26 -month period covering the enactment of the GDPR and employ econometric models to analyze the regulation's effects on app trade between country pairs. Contrary to assertions that regional data protection and privacy regulations impede digital trade and aggravate fragmentation, the empirical results demonstrate a significant increase in top -performing foreign apps compared with native ones in the European Union countries post-GDPR. We further conduct a series of analyses to explore the underlying mechanisms potentially driving these effects from both the supply and demand sides. Our findings lend support to the demandside mechanism, whereby the GDPR helps alleviate consumer privacy concerns and provides reassurance in adopting foreign digital products.