Seminars topic: This paper examines the rationale and impacts of customer reward programs in two-sided markets. It investigates the effectiveness of these programs and highlights their interaction with matching schemes. We demonstrate that adopting a customer reward program can significantly enhance the platforms profit. Importantly, matching schemes play a crucial role—customer reward programs are much more profitable under priority matching schemes compared to random matching schemes. We conclude that customer reward programs can serve as an even more vital profit-boosting tool for two-sided markets than for traditional one-sided markets.

Scholars Background: Chengyi Lyu is a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on platform-based businesses and can be classified into two interrelated streams. In the first stream, she builds economic models to understand the rationales and impacts of innovative business models, thereby offering managerial insights and guidance for platforms and other stakeholders. In the second stream, she develops optimization and data-driven methods to enhance decision-making and operational efficiency.

Time and Location: Arpil 23, 2025 | 09:00-10:00 (GMT+8), Room A423 (School of Management)

Language: Bilingual (ENG & CN)