Dataset Information

Macroscopic properties of buyer-seller networks in online marketplaces.

ABSTRACT: Online marketplaces are the main engines of legal and illegal e-commerce, yet their empirical properties are poorly understood due to the absence of large-scale data. We analyze two comprehensive datasets containing 245M transactions (16B USD) that took place on online marketplaces between 2010 and 2021, covering 28 dark web marketplaces, i.e. unregulated markets whose main currency is Bitcoin, and 144 product markets of one popular regulated e-commerce platform. We show that transactions in online marketplaces exhibit strikingly similar patterns despite significant differences in language, lifetimes, products, regulation, and technology. Specifically, we find remarkable regularities in the distributions of transaction amounts, number of transactions, interevent times, and time between first and last transactions. We show that buyer behavior is affected by the memory of past interactions and use this insight to propose a model of network formation reproducing our main empirical observations. Our findings have implications for understanding market power on online marketplaces as well as intermarketplace competition, and provide empirical foundation for theoretical economic models of online marketplaces.

SUBMITTER: Bracci A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9802486 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Macroscopic properties of buyer-seller networks in online marketplaces.

Bracci Alberto A Boehnke Jörn J ElBahrawy Abeer A Perra Nicola N Teytelboym Alexander A Baronchelli Andrea A

PNAS nexus 20220901 4

Online marketplaces are the main engines of legal and illegal e-commerce, yet their empirical properties are poorly understood due to the absence of large-scale data. We analyze two comprehensive datasets containing 245M transactions (16B USD) that took place on online marketplaces between 2010 and 2021, covering 28 dark web marketplaces, i.e. unregulated markets whose main currency is Bitcoin, and 144 product markets of one popular regulated e-commerce platform. We show that transactions in onl ...[more]

PMID: 36714880

Similar Datasets

Project description:OBJECTIVE:To examine the effect on the trade in opioids through online illicit markets ("cryptomarkets") of the US Drug Enforcement Administration's ruling in 2014 to reschedule hydrocodone combination products. DESIGN:Interrupted time series analysis. SETTING:31 of the world's largest cryptomarkets operating from October 2013 to July 2016. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:The proportion of total transactions, advertised and active listings for prescription opioids, prescription sedatives, prescription steroids, prescription stimulants, and illicit opioids, and the composition of the prescription opioid market between the US and elsewhere. RESULTS:The sale of prescription opioids through US cryptomarkets increased after the schedule change, with no statistically significant changes in sales of prescription sedatives, prescription steroids, prescription stimulants, or illicit opioids. In July 2016 sales of opioids through US cryptomarkets represented 13.7% of all drug sales (95% confidence interval 11.5% to 16.0%) compared with a modelled estimate of 6.7% of all sales (3.7% to 9.6%) had the new schedule not been introduced. This corresponds to a 4 percentage point yearly increase in the amount of trade that prescription opioids represent in the US market, set against no corresponding changes for comparable products or for prescription opioids sold outside the US. This change was first observed for sales, and later observed for product availability. There was also a change in the composition of the prescription opioid market: fentanyl was the least purchased product during July to September 2014, then the second most frequently purchased by July 2016. CONCLUSIONS:The scheduling change in hydrocodone combination products coincided with a statistically significant, sustained increase in illicit trading of opioids through online US cryptomarkets. These changes were not observed for other drug groups or in other countries. A subsequent move was observed towards the purchase of more potent forms of prescription opioids, particularly oxycodone and fentanyl.

Dataset Information

Macroscopic properties of buyer-seller networks in online marketplaces.

Publications

Macroscopic properties of buyer-seller networks in online marketplaces.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets