Personalized Ranking at a Mobile App Distribution Platform

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mao, Shengjun; Dewan, Sanjeev; Ho, Yi-Jen (Ian)
• 署名单位: University of Hong Kong; University of California System; University of California Irvine; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park
• 刊物名称: INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7047
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.2022.1156
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 811-827
• 关键词: consumer-behavior; search; online; systems; IMPACT; POWER

摘要

The ease of customer data collection has enabled the widespread personalization of content and services in digital platforms. We examine personalization in a hitherto unaddressed context: that of mobile app distribution. Specifically, we develop a comprehensive framework for the personalized ranking of app impressions, leveraging revealed preferences embedded in consumer clickstream data. To improve platform revenues, the framework jointly accounts for consumer utility and cost per action (CPA) margin, which is the revenue earned by the platform per app installation. To this end, we specify a structural model of click and installation choices, jointly estimated as a function of a comprehensive set of numerical (screen rank, quality, and popularity) and textual (titles, descriptions, and reviews) covariates. Our novel data set is at the granular user-impression level and uniquely includes app CPA margins paid to the platform. We conduct a series of policy experiments to quantify the value of personalization. Specifically, we show that a personalized hybrid margin and utility margin ranking scheme outperforms other personalized methods, including those based on utilities alone or a combination of utilities and margins. Overall, our analysis demonstrates how platforms can leverage routine consumer click stream data to personalize the ranking of app impressions, thereby more effectively monetizing mobile app distribution.