The bargaining process between the platform and users has great impact on the pricing scheme and the successful establishment of a platform. When users receive utilities after paying a initial cost to join the platform, they face the risk of platform's aggressive pricing and are discouraged from...

We conceptually identify and empirically verify using marketplace lending data the features distinguishing FinTech platforms from non-financial platforms: (i) Long-term contracts introducing default risk at both the individual and platform levels; (ii) Lenders' investment diversification to...