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Online retailers have increasingly adopted product recommendation systems as an effective tool to improve product visibility and promote sales. This study examines the impact of the recommendation system in the popular Google Play mobile app store. By analyzing a 60-day panel dataset with 235,638 observations from 9,735 apps, we investigate how the characteristics of the recommended apps relative to those of the focal apps affect the adoption of mobile apps in this volatile market. Our results show that the relative strength of the recommended apps over the focal app plays a key role in influencing the outcome of recommendations. Moreover, the heterogeneity of the recommendations as represented by the diversity of the popularity of the recommended apps is positively associated with a more even distribution of revenue in the market. These findings provide insights for mobile app market operators to enhance the design of their recommendation systems.

The rise of peer-to-peer online financial services that attract users with social media features warrants a sharper distinction between security and privacy. While past research on online financial services focuses on the security of the transactions, the literature on online social media emphasizes the risks for the individual's privacy. Unfortunately, the two concepts are often considered as overlapping or, in some cases, as two dimensions of the same concept, thus making complex the study of the distinct roles of security and privacy in the decision-making process. We analyze the activity of 13, 338 accounts on Venmo to explore the different roles of the two concepts in the decision to disclose financial transactions on online platforms. The results show that security concerns cause the users to opt-out of any public feeds, while users address their privacy concerns by limiting the amount of information disclosed. The findings and their impact are discussed.