Chinese third-party shipping internet platforms: Thriving and surviving in a two-sided market (2013-2016)

How can cargo owners be persuaded to switch their traditional offline business practices to a third-party online shipping platform? To address this question, we selected 10 representative third-party shipping Internet platforms in China and analyzed them based on grounded theory. In-depth interviews that lasted an average of 2.5 h were conducted with each company. After applying open coding and axial coding to interview transcripts that included more than 110,000 words (in Chinese), we propose three industrial characteristics that may hinder the development of Chinese third-party shipping Internet platforms. The two most popular initiating strategies adopted to address these issues are "disintermediation" and "service upgrading." Our theoretical framework suggests that each initiating strategy should include three interconnected issues that can ensure a platform's success: value proposition, entry mode and competitive advantage. The final sections of our study describe our contributions to theoretical development and implications for practitioners.