Suchergebnisse

The Information Age has a surfeit of information received relative to what is processed. We model multiple sectors competing for consumer attention, with competition in price within each sector. Sector advertising levels follow a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) form, and within‐sector prices are dispersed with a truncated Pareto distribution. The "information hump" shows highest ad levels for intermediate attention levels. Overall, advertising is excessive, although the allocation across sectors is optimal. The blame for information overload falls most on product categories with low information transmission costs and low profits.

There are only 24 hours a day, and our capacity for attention is limited. Yet, in our digital world, everything and everyone competes for this attention, using a wide range of technical and psychological strategies. This "hypercompetition" for attention was chosen as the theme for the annual conference of the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research, held in April 2023. The conference, titled "What Do We Pay Attention To? Digital Innovations in the Competition for Attention," was hosted by the Institute of Communication and Marketing at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences. We want to draw your attention to four contributions presented at the conference. The four articles in this Thematic Section contribute to understanding the competition for attention from distinct and varied perspectives. Hence, we hope you will devote some of your precious attention to exploring these enlightening articles.

AbstractSummaryFollowing the economic literature attention initially treated as "fictious commodity" became an important component of the market; in attention market users supply time for content they are interrested in. Attention market differs from conventional market in several aspects and becomes a new challenge for antitrust. The article therefore analyses attention markets from competition point of view. Starting with economic background it discusses different approches to the relevant market analysis and the tools used for relevant market assessment (SSNIP, SSNIC and SSNDQ test). It explores also changes in identification of market power and new forms of anticompetitive behaviour in these prevalently zero-price markets. Attention is drawn also to the benefits of functioning competition. Outcomes of analysis are summed up in the conclusion.