Abstract: With the rapid development of the mobile Internet technology, the piracy of information goods has affected the development in many countries around the world. In order to deal with piracy, many information goods vendors typically adopt various strategies. For example, the multi-version strategy (releasing different versions of products to allow consumers to choose according to their quality preferences), differential pricing strategy (different pricing strategies for different market conditions, consumer copyright awareness, willingness to pay, etc.), technical policy (through technical means, such as non-standard disk hardware technology and activation codes, registration codes, serial numbers and other software technologies). In fact, besides those strategies, some information goods vendors also consider starting with genuine users, by improving the utility of genuine users and increasing user stickiness to deal with the problem of piracy in the market.
This paper studies the strategy choice of Genuine Freemium Services (GFS) of a monopoly firm in the information goods market under effects of piracy, the effect of this strategy on the piracy rate and the optimal pricing of genuine goods. In this paper, the consumer choice model based on Individual Rationality (IR) and Incentive Compatibility is constructed to deal with the consumer decision-making problem mainly. Following it, the information goods vendor's decision-making problem of GFS strategy is considered based on the profit functions. Specifically, firstly, we build Model 1 to describe the scenario in which the information goods vendor does not provide GFS. Secondly, we build Model 2 to describe the scenario in which the information goods vendor provides GFS. Thirdly, by comparing the vendor's optimal profit in Model 1 and Model 2, we discuss and analyze the vendor's choice of GFS strategy and the influence of this strategy on the pricing of genuine products and the rate of market piracy. Finally, combing with numerical examples, we furtherly validate the validity of the research conclusions.
The study finds that whether the information goods vendor adopts the GFS strategy is related to the piracy cost. When the piracy cost is small, there is no difference in the optimal pricing of genuine goods whether the manufacturer adopts the GFS strategy or not, the piracy rates in the two scenarios are equal and both are negatively correlated with the piracy cost. Then, the optimal choice of the manufacturer is not to adopt the GFS strategy; when the piracy cost is moderate or large, if the manufacturer adopts the GFS strategy, the pricing of the genuine goods will be higher than that of no GFS strategy. Although there are differences in the strength of the manufacturer's optimal GFS levels under different piracy costs, adopting GFS strategy is always the optimal choice of the manufacturer. In addition, the study also finds that when the piracy cost is moderate, adopting the GFS strategy will effectively reduce the piracy rate. The research conclusions can provide theoretical reference for the scientific decision-making of information goods manufacturers under the influence of piracy.

Key words: information goods, piracy, genuine freemium service

摘要： 研究了盗版影响下信息产品市场中垄断厂商的正版免费增值服务策略选择问题,以及该策略对盗版率和产品定价的影响。研究发现厂商是否提供正版免费增值服务与消费者的盗版成本相关:当盗版成本较低时,厂商的最优选择是不提供正版免费增值服务,此时无论是否提供正版免费增值服务,厂商的产品定价和盗版率均无差异,且都与盗版成本负相关;当盗版成本适中或较大时,厂商的最优选择是提供正版免费增值服务,但不同盗版成本情形下厂商提供的正版免费增值服务力度存在差异,且此时的产品定价将高于不提供正版免费增值服务时的定价。此外,研究还发现当盗版成本适中时,厂商提供正版免费增值服务将有效打击盗版,降低市场上的盗版率。本文的研究结论可为盗版影响下的信息产品厂商的科学决策提供理论参考。

关键词: 信息产品, 盗版, 正版免费增值服务