Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy (The MIT Press)

242 Pages·2017·3.44 MB·English

by  Anindya Ghose

Tap

Tap
Unlocking the Mobile Economy
Anindya Ghose
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
Set in ITC Stone Serif Std by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound
in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ghose, Anindya, author.
Title: Tap : unlocking the mobile economy / Anindya Ghose.
Description: Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016043788 | ISBN 9780262036276 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Mobile commerce. | Cell phone advertising. | Consumer behavior. |
World Wide Web--Security measures.
Classification: LCC HF5548.34 .G46 2017 | DDC 381/.142--dc23 LC record available
at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016043788
ISBN: 978-0-262-03627-6
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
I Human Behavior and the Mobile Phone Journey So Far
1 Mobile Phones: A Truly Transformative Technology 17
2 What the Smartphone Has Changed 25
3 Striking a Balance 33
II The Forces Shaping the Mobile Economy
4 Context: What’s Going On? 47
5 Location: Why Geography Matters 59
6 Time: It’s On Your Side 79
7 Saliency: Can You See Me Now? 95
8 Crowdedness: Why Scarcity of Space Matters 107
9 Trajectory: Watch Where You’re Walking 119
10 Social Dynamics: You Are Who You’re With 135
11 Weather: Creating the Perfect Storm 147
12 Tech Mix: Solving Wanamaker’s Riddle 159
III Next-Generation Technology Forces
13 The Growing Intimacy between Us and Our Devices 181
14 The Next-Generation Technologies 183
Epilogue 195
Notes 205
Index 227

Acknowledgments
A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
I am grateful to my co-authors on the core research that anchors the book.
I have learned an extraordinary amount from my interactions with them:
Panos Adamopoulos, Michelle Andrews, Jason Chan, Avi Goldfarb, Xitong
Guo, Sangpil Han, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Dongwon Lee, Beibei Li, Siyuan
Liu, Xueming Luo, Dominik Molitor, Wonseok Oh, Sung-Hyuk Park, Philip
Reichart, Martin Spann, Paramvir Singh, Vilma Todri, Kaiquan Xu, Sha
Yang, and Zheng Fang. It has been a ton of fun to work with them.
I would like to thank my NYU Stern colleagues as well as current and
past doctoral students with whom I have benefited from various formal and
informal scholarly interactions and academic collaborations.
I am particularly indebted to Batia Wiesenfeld for being an incredible
mentor for the past twelve years at NYU and for always being there for me.
I especially thank Mike Pinedo, Alex Tuzhilin, Peter Henry, Elizabeth
Morrison, Russ Winer, and Eitan Zemel for their support in recent years. I
also thank Arun Sundararajan for sharing important insights over the years
that have helped shape my thinking on various fronts.
It has also been wonderful to get to know so many outstanding NYU
Stern undergraduate and graduate students from the MBA, MSBA, EMBA,
and TRIUM programs.
I am grateful to my PhD advisors, Ramayya Krishnan and Tridas
Mukhopadhyay, and to other members of my dissertation committee—
Uday Rajan, Michael D. Smith, and Rahul Telang—for guiding me during
my four wonderful years at Carnegie Mellon. I especially thank Uday for
being the most incredible coach and mentor that any doctoral student can
hope for. Most of what I have learned about research was learned from him.
I would also like to thank several others from whom I have benefited
through numerous scholarly discussions and collaborations: Sinan Aral,
viii Acknowledgments
Susan Athey, Nikolay Archak, Ravi Bapna, Sofia Bapna, Erik Brynjolfsson,
Ram Chellappa, V. Choudhary, Chris Forman, Esther Gal-Or, Bin Gu,
Ke-Wei Huang, Yan Huang, Amit Mehra, Vallabh Sambamurthy, Ramesh
Shankarnarayanan, Yong Tan, Hal Varian, Sunil Wattal, Yuliang (Oliver)
Yao, Sam Jeon, Yuqian Xu, Xuan Ye, Qiang Ye, Byungjoon Yoo, and Rong
Zheng. During my very memorable stint at the Wharton School in 2011
and 2012, I benefited from my interactions with David Bell, Eric Bradlow,
Gerard Cachon, Peter Fader, Lorin Hitt, Kartik Hosanagar, and Raghu
Iyengar.
In the industry and corporate world, I have benefited immensely from
my interactions with Nic Baddour, Akshay Chaturvedi, John Blankenbaker,
Alejandro Cremades, Andrada Comanac, Rahul Guha, Jack Hanlon,
Shankar Iyer, Nadia Neytcheva, George Pappachen, Ross Rizley, Craig
Stacey, Wally Wang, and Andrew Wong. Of these I am especially indebted
to Shankar Iyer for opening for me one of the most fascinating doors in
my career so far: the world of data-driven litigation consulting. Working
on these litigation cases has significantly enhanced the breadth and depth
of my understanding of the digital economy, and has been a very fulfilling
and enriching experience.
I thank Michael (Mike) Smith for making some invaluable connections.
First and foremost, he connected me to his outstanding literary agent, Rafe
Sagalyn. I am grateful to Rafe for sharing insights about the book publish-
ing process and for navigating discussions with the MIT Press. Mike also
connected me to Jane MacDonald, who was my first acquisitions editor. She
believed in the thesis of this book and I am grateful to her for that. Midway
through the process, the wonderful Emily Taber started to handle my man-
uscript and became my acquisitions editor. I am deeply grateful to Emily
for being the beacon that eventually lit my path to publication. She guided
me through the publishing process, shared invaluable insights throughout
the process, and provided excellent editorial comments.
I thank the following folks for giving excellent feedback that helped
improve the manuscript: Panos Adamopoulos, Amitabh Bose, Gordon
Burtch, Beibei Li, Martin Spann, Vilma Todri, and David Verchere.
I am thankful to Jessica Neville of Neville Communications and to Frank
Luby and Elana Duffy of Present Tense for editorial support and feedback.
Over the years, the NYU Stern Public Relations team has been a terrific
source of support in taking my research and helping to disseminate it