Why do intermediaries divert search?
研究信息中介（如电商平台）为何有动机引导消费者搜索更多商品，即使消费者本不想搜那么多。分析了两种动机：用更多流量换取更高单次收入，以及影响商家定价等策略。对理解平台经济中的搜索行为有用。
We analyze the incentives to divert search for an information intermediary who enables buyers (consumers) to search affiliated sellers (stores). We identify two original motives for diverting search (i.e., inducing consumers to search more than they would like): (i) trading off higher total consumer traffic for higher revenues per consumer visit; and (ii) influencing stores’ choices of strategic variables (e.g., pricing). We characterize the conditions under which there would be no role for search diversion as a strategic instrument for the intermediary, thereby showing that it occurs even when the contracting space is significantly enriched. We then discuss several applications related to online and brick‐and‐mortar intermediaries.