Platform Capitalism (Theory Redux)

tax evasion and cash hoarding have left US companies – particularly tech companies – with a vast amount of money to invest.

they in fact embody a politics. The rules of product and service development, as well as marketplace interactions, are set by the platform owner.

A tool of survival is being marketed by Silicon Valley as a tool of liberation.

‘network effects’: the more numerous the users who use a platform, the more valuable that platform becomes for everyone else.

generalised market dependency led to a systemic imperative to reduce production costs in relation to prices.

dollar was devalued in the Plaza Accord (1985);

The gig economy simply moves these sites online and adds a layer of pervasive surveillance.

designed core architecture that governs the interaction possibilities.

platforms often use cross-subsidisation: