Surviving a Standards War: Lessons Learned from the Life and Death of DIVX

Neil Gandal and David Dranove

No 3935, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: In April 1997, a consortium of hardware manufacturers and movie studios launched the DVD format. By that fall, electronics retailing giant Circuit City announced its intentions to launch a partially incompatible format known as DIVX. This Paper assesses Circuit City?s strategy to establish the dominant standard for digital video technology. We identify several key principles that any firm must consider when deciding how to compete in a market with evolving standards. We argue that virtually all of these factors weighed in against Circuit City, so that its effort was destined to fail.

Keywords: Standards war; Network effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K21 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-net
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