Competition in the age of platforms: rethinking market power in technology-criven economies

Platforms are the new economic tools that are reshaping the economic activity between consumers, suppliers and producers, and in doing so, they are challenging traditional approaches to competition and market structure. In addition to traditional concepts such as elasticity and barriers, new concepts such as “network effects”, “cross-market integration” or “data dominance” have emerged to identify the market power with the rise of platforms. While platforms are offering lower costs and variety, their scale and technological capabilities can create barriers to entry and influence the choices consumers can access, which are the conditions observed in monopolies. This chapter examines the dynamics of the platform model and studies the implications of its rise. By highlighting the limitations of applying traditional framework to the new structure, it aims to underline the need for revised analytical framework. To show the deviations from traditional model, this chapter focuses on tourism industry and uses https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://Kayak.com">Kayak.com as a case study, demonstrating how theoretical debates align with real-world practices.