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This study examines the effects of data sponsorship on content quality, company profits, and consumer benefits. Our analysis reveals that the efficiency of content providers in producing high-quality content is a critical factor. When creating high-quality content is difficult or expensive, sponsored data allows ISPs to increase their profits but can harm content providers by driving overly aggressive competition for users. Conversely, when producing high-quality content becomes easier or less costly\u2014such as with the support of artificial intelligence\u2014sponsored data can benefit both content providers and consumers, albeit at the expense of ISP profits. As advancements in technology continue to facilitate content creation, ISPs and policymakers must reconsider the structure of data sponsorship programs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1287\/isre.2022.0002","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,10]],"date-time":"2025-06-10T09:59:01Z","timestamp":1749549541000},"page":"341-355","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["You Get What You Pay For! An Economic Analysis of the Impact of Data Sponsorship on Content Production"],"prefix":"10.1287","volume":"37","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8083-1151","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xin","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Be\u0133ing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6243-7062","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chong (Alex)","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Systems, The College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8771-9389","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Liangfei","family":"Qiu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8383-0461","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xi","family":"Weng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Be\u0133ing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"109","reference":[{"key":"B1","unstructured":"AIContentfy (2023) The role of AI in content personalization.\n                      AIContentfy\n                      (November 6), https:\/\/aicontentfy.com\/en\/blog\/role-of-ai-in-content-personalization."},{"key":"B2","unstructured":"Ampere Analysis (2023) Growth in content investment will slump in 2023. 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