“…Importing users into their own platforms is the only way to achieve controllable private domain flow (e.g., independent app, WeChat group, official account, personal account, and corporate WeChat). Brand merchants, on the other hand, must pay for public domain flow pool exposure, which will continue to rise in price (Wong and Ngai, 2021 ; Zheng et al, 2022 ). In contrast, while merchants must also operate and maintain private domain flow, the cost of acquiring customers is relatively low and long term (Peck et al, 2013 ; Kumar et al, 2017 ).…”