Platform economies from "summary" of Radical Technologies by Adam Greenfield
At the heart of the matter is an insight into the dynamics of contemporary capitalism, and the ways in which digital platforms have come to dominate our economic lives. By now, it's a commonplace to note that the most valuable companies on the planet are those that have found ways to intermediate between buyers and sellers, service providers and clients, or advertisers and eyeballs, by way of networked information technologies. These companies have established themselves as platforms, and in so doing have profoundly reshaped the nature of economic exchange. What they provide is not a product or service, but rather a way for others to engage in transactions of their own. The vast majority of these platforms are operated for profit, and their profitability can often depend on their ability to extract value from the interactions they mediate. This can take the form of a direct fee levied on transactions, or the sale of advertising that's displayed to users; it can involve the collection and analysis of data on those users, or the imposition of terms and conditions that are favorable to the platform itself. In many cases, the operators of these platforms have come to exercise an extraordinary degree of power over their participants, setting the terms under which they interact and extracting rents that can amount to a significant proportion of the value created by their labors. These platforms have also given rise to new forms of labor, organized through apps and other digital interfaces, that in many cases closely resemble the piecework and time-and-motion management of the early industrial era. The platform economy is often characterized by precarity and insecurity, as workers find themselves subject to algorithmic control, subject to the whims of an inscrutable and indifferent system. This has profound implications for the future of work and the shape of society itself, and it's a matter of pressing concern to anyone who cares about economic justice or social equality.
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