Registration

Getting to Know CRA’s Academic Experts: Feng Zhu
Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Tuesday, October 27, 2026 | 5:30-7:30 pm ET
Antitrust in Digital Platform Markets:
Network Effects, Market Power—and What AI May Change

Digital platforms often benefit from network effects, but those effects do not necessarily result in durable market power. Factors such as multihoming, network structure, and the ability of users to transact outside a platform can constrain incumbents and create opportunities for entry. Understanding these mechanisms is essential to assessing competition in platform markets.

In this in-person seminar, Professor Feng Zhu will draw on his academic research and industry cases to examine five network properties that shape platform performance and competition. He will also explore how AI may reshape these forces and what that could mean for antitrust analysis. He will discuss:

Network Effects: When additional users strengthen a platform’s competitive position and why network effects do not always produce winner-take-all outcomes.
Multihoming: How participation on multiple platforms by consumers and suppliers shapes rivalry, entry, and the effects of exclusivity.
Network Clustering: Why the geographic and social structure of user interactions matters for competitive advantage and opportunities for entry.
Disintermediation: How buyers and sellers bypass platforms, and how trust and platform design affect incentives to transact directly.
Network Bridging: How connecting complementary networks creates economies of scope and can extend a platform’s position into adjacent markets.

The seminar will equip antitrust practitioners with a research-based framework for evaluating competitive constraints, barriers to entry, and the durability of market power in digital platform markets.

A network reception with cocktails and light refreshments will follow the seminar. Please enter your details below to request to join the event.

If you have any questions, contact aborrero@crai.com.

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