Fairness of platform: The ranking data analysis of health and fitness apps

Most consumers prefer to download top ranking apps because they consider a high rank as a guarantee of quality. However, the platform couldn't openly reveal the ranking algorithm for its commercial considerations. Even though some app developers still found strategic hypotheses to improve the ranking, but no one could really understand how the ranking algorithm worked. Under this condition, consumers and app developers didn't know the ranking algorithm was fair or not. Therefore, the purposes of this study were as follows: (A) To investigate the popular themes of health & fitness app; (B) To understand the influence of consumer feedback and producer affiliation on ranking. The study applied co-word analysis to classify the themes of popular apps. Moreover, the study used T-test and Chi-square test to understand the difference between the high-ranking group and the low-ranking group. The results found that popular apps could be classified into four themes: monitoring, coaching, diary, and sleeping monitor. The themes had nonsignificant differences in the ranking, neither the producer affiliation. The app ranking was significantly different from the review number and install number. In conclusion, the result indicated that the ranking algorithm on Google Play didn't exclude apps getting high ranking places because of its producer affiliation. Therefore, the study suggested other researchers keep track of the fairness issues on the platform via longitudinal research.