Final Thesis: Can You Turn Both Ways? Two-Sided Markets in the Age of the Internet (Teaching Case)
Abstract: This thesis presents a business case of Netdosis AG which was founded in July 2012. Netdosis has applied two-sided markets as a business model, which get one side (internal doctors team and pediatricians) and the other side (pediatricians, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals) on the board via its knowledge sharing web portal. Simultaneously, Netdosis faces the problems whether the business model sustains its business development and how to satisfy and balance each side. This thesis includes three main parts: the first part tracks the story of Netdosis, analyzes its two-sided markets business model, illustrates the actions to satisfy and balance each side, and reviews the challenges of Netdosis (e.g. ethical and legal issue). The second part provides the literature view of two-sided markets, explains relevant terms (e.g. network effect) and two-sided markets strategies (e.g. pricing). Furthermore, this part explains the attributes of web portal and demonstrates sentiment analysis which can be used to improve the value of Netdosis. Finally, a teaching note will be offered to guide the case analysis during class discussion.
Reference: Yi Wu. Can You Turn Both Ways? Two-Sided Markets in the Age of the Internet. Master Thesis, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg: 2013.