Dynamic access pricing of Google Maps's user data

Abstract: The present thesis examines interactions on the mobile cartography market where firms use big data as a competitive advantage. I develop a dynamic access pricing model suggesting a regulatory scheme to maximise social welfare in which a regulator sets a price for user data that is made accessible to a potential entrant to a side market, the mobile advertising market. An optimal access price is rising over time. The stronger an incumbent's accumulated advantage of serving a higher number of end users, the less socially desirable it is to have a second firm in the market. This effect counteracts the incentive of a new firm to enter the market when capturing wealthier end users by employing an own map.