The interaction of Shopbots and Pricebots Xin Sui Nov 30, 2006 Shopbots • Shopbots – agents that automatically search the internet for goods and/or services on behalf of consumers (minimize costs for comsumer) http://www.pricescan.com Shopbots • How shopbots affect sellers? – if a seller doesn’t adjust their goods’ prices according to its competitors’ , they may experience decreased sales and may give ground to its competitors. – It’s better for sellers to reprice their goods as quickly as possible Pricebot • Pricebot: Economically-motivated agents that set prices so as to maximize the profits of the sellers. • The paper “shopbots and pricebots” conducted several experiments. Three strategies were considered. – GT: using information about buyers – MY: using information about buyers and its competitors’ prices – DF: not use information about buyers and its competitors’ prices 1. When a MY seller is involved in a DF or GT population, it outplays them 2. Faster price-setter earns more profit than others. Pricebots need shopbots • The strategy of Pricebots may most likely needs the knowledge of competitors’ prices. How to get such info? shopbots. • Where to get shopbots? – If the sellers build shopbots by themselves • Overload their competitors’ web sites, so their accesses will be prevented by their competitors – if the sellers use shopbots provided by other companies • Overload shopbots, hinder human buyers, so their accesses will be prevented by those shopbots What is the solution • Charging for price information service – For shopbot, charging pricebots for price information – For sellers, charging shopbot for price information • Is there any other solution? Discussion • What kind of sellers will get more money by selling price information? • What kind of sellers will acquire less price information so that pay less money on it? • Is the money by selling information fee earned by a seller less than that it pay for acquiring price information? • If less, does the difference between them increase the price of their goods or reduce its profits? • If more, does the difference between them increase its profits?