竞争环境下SaaS提供商的定价策略选择及其社会福利分析

Pricing Strategy of a Software-as-a-Service Provider and the Social Welfare Analysis in a Competitive Market

现有关于传统软件提供商和SaaS提供商竞争问题的研究,大都给定SaaS定价方式,或局限于垂直差异化模型。本文同时考虑两种提供商之间的垂直差异和水平差异,以及不同用户在产品使用量和产品偏好两个维度上的异质性,研究了SaaS提供商的最优定价策略选择及其对社会福利的影响。结果表明:(1)当SaaS提供商与传统软件提供商之间的垂直差异相对较小、水平差异相对较大时,应该按订阅收费,从锁定的细分市场榨取更多剩余价值;否则,应该按使用量收费,以缓解竞争并吸引使用量小、价格敏感的低端用户。(2)传统提供商的产品定制化水平越高,SaaS提供商越应该按使用量收费。(3)SaaS按订阅收费总能实现社会福利最优,因此,要想提供商策略选择与社会福利最大化目标相一致,政府机构应该引导提供商进行产品多样化,防止同质化竞争或价格歧视。

Traditional software is permanently licensed and customizable,while SaaS services are standardized,and are generally charged at a monthly/annual fixed price subscription or according to the actual usage of each consumer.Existing research on the competition between traditional software providers and SaaS providers is mostly limited to vertical differentiation models,or given the pricing scheme of SaaS.Taking into account the vertical and horizontal differences between providers,as well as the consumer heterogeneity in the two dimensions of product usage and product preferences,the optimal pricing strategy of the SaaS provider and its impact on social welfare are examined.The competition between the traditional software provider and the SaaS provider is characterized by the Hotelling model,and the choice between subscription-based pricing scheme and pay-per-use pricing scheme is analyzed.The results are as follows.(1)When the vertical difference between the SaaS provider and the traditional software provider is relatively small and the horizontal difference is relatively large,the subscription-based pricing scheme should be adopted to extract more surplus from the locked market segment;otherwise,the pay-per-use pricing scheme should be adopted to ease competition and attract low-end consumers with low usage and large price sensitivity.(2)The higher the product customization level of the traditional provider,the more willingness of the SaaS provider to adopt the pay-per-use pricing scheme.(3)The best social welfare can be always achieved when the subscription-based pricing scheme is adopted by the SaaS provider.Therefore,if wishing the strategic choice of providers to be consistent with the goal of social welfare maximization,providers should be guided by the government agencies to diversify their products,and prevent homogeneous competition or price discrimination.