Abstract
Digital platform app developers (i.e., complementors) must maintain a high pace of change in their apps to secure their survival in a platform's dynamic competitive context. However, not all app design changes help extend an app's survival time on the platform. Complementors can employ platform-specific competitive logic by updating their apps with new features that utilize network effects, such as introducing connectivity between focal app users and interconnectivity with the users of different apps. To increase our understanding of the effect of app updates on app longevity, I theorize that app updates are competitive technology actions that can employ a winner-take-all competitive logic at the complementor app level if they introduce app features that utilize network effects. Complementor specialization is known to attenuate app longevity. However, this strengthens the positive effect of app updates on app longevity. Support for these hypotheses was found in a panel dataset comprising three million Android applications observed on the Google Play Store. This study contributes to the growing body of research on app level competition on digital platforms by investigating app longevity and the role of complementor specialization. It advances a longevity strategy for complementors' apps by utilizing the network effects in complementors' apps and their specialization.