The authors thank Christian Peukert for the contribution to the first stages of this work. The authors also thank the senior editor Avi Goldfarb, the associate editor, two referees, Doh-Shin Jeon, Bruno Jullien, Leonardo Madio, Mark Tremblay, and participants to presentations at Nottingham University Business School, the Louvain and Paris Online Seminar, the OsloMet seminar, Toulouse School of Economics digital seminar, the Scientific Seminar on the Economics, Law and Policy of Communications and Media at European University Institute in Florence, and the Workshop on the economics of platforms in Bologna for valuable comments. Part of this research was carried out while A. D’Annunzio was at the University Federico II, Naples.