Advantage of foreignness in a digital world: role of long tail users

Purpose This study aims to explore the advantage of foreignness in a digital world. Design/methodology/approach Usage data for 251 days of 32 travel mobile applications installed on a major mobile phone brand in China are examined. Results support the author’s arguments. Findings Foreign mobile apps enjoy higher daily usage time than local apps. Next, the author consider how foreign apps can maximize their advantage, that is, increase daily usage time. The author argue that a multinational enterprise (MNE) can digitally enter a country that has numerous immigrants from its home country because of the high number of potential long tail users. A high level of diversity of international experience of MNEs increases the ability to understand and satisfy the specific needs of long tail users, thereby increasing daily usage time of foreign mobile apps. To maximize the advantage of foreignness in a digital world, MNEs can also carefully select business models that do not heavily rely on network effect, given the difficulty of generating network effect by long tail users. Originality/value Previous studies focus on the liability of foreignness or outsidership that MNEs encounter in the digital world, whereas this study argues that foreignness brings certain benefits, such as the capability to satisfy the specific needs of long tail users.