e3value user guide
A set of actors that assign value to objects in the same way may be grouped into a market segment . For example, the set of subscribers of Netflix may be grouped into a market segment, because from the point of view of Netflix, they all attach the same value to streaming video.
Of course, in reality, different customers may attach a different value to streaming video. But Netflix offers all its customers a choice among the same subscription schemes and subscribers pay the same amount based on their subscription scheme. The concept of market segment is a modeling abstraction that helps us understand a value network.
Market segments are represented in e3value as three stacked actors (figure 2.2). A market segment has a name unique in the e3value diagram. We recommend the name to be plural form, such as Customers or Artists.
Two market segments may have a non-empty intersection. For example, a movie actor can have a subscription to Netflix streaming video (figure 2.3). The actor is then part of two market segments, that of Movie ctors and of Netflix customers. An overlap of two market segments is not represented in e3value .
Another kind of double appearance is when a business actor is part of a market segment and also appears as individual actor in the diagram. For example, Facebook appears as an individual business actor in the value network of Facebook. Facebook places advertisements for itself on all social networks, including itself. So the Facebook value network contains a market segment Social Networks, that contains Facebook itself (figure 2.4). Again, we do not represent these relations in e3value .
Size of market segment. A market segment has a size, which is the number of actors in the segment.