The Value of Information: Game Model of Supply Chain Based on C2M

C2M(Customer-to-Manufacturer), a new direct selling format, is adopted by increasing number of manufacturers. Under this format, the manufacturers analyze customers' information provided by the platform (e, g. Amazon, JD, et al.), and directly sell products to the customers more precisely via the platform. However, for the platform, since information gathering will scarify customers' privacy, lead to negative comments and information cost, a challenging problem is that should the platform collect the customers' information and share it to the manufacturers? This paper addresses this issue under three scenarios: no information sharing, information sharing with free, information sharing with cost sharing. The analyses show two main findings: First of all, compared with no information sharing, information sharing can achieve a win-win situation, especially for the manufacturer and the platform while they share the cost of information. Second, the platform has a higher incentive to collect information if it charges the manufacturer a higher commission fee.