Digital poverty: How online economy captures property inequality

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of digital poverty, arising when communication through digital platforms reduces the cost of the process of obtaining and exchanging information and replaces traditional economic processes. Using the example of the consumption of digital and online services, the author shows how digital communications can act as a marker for differentiating the behavior of the poor and the rich. Using cluster analysis and assessment of multicollinearity, the author interprets the data of a sociological study of five groups of respondents, indicating the factors of manifestation of digital poverty in the behavior of economic agents. The problem of the digital trace formed as a result of the automated data collection from users of online services is also considered. The author notes that consumers of digital services, in exchange for discounts, transfer their personal data to digital platforms that use the information received to stimulate further online consumption through new discounts and loyalty programs, which has a negative impact on offline consumption. The study also raises the issue of the accompanying digital poverty of economic externalities, identifies markers of property inequality in the digital economy, possible options for the development of the online economy against the background of the classical communication and social relations become luxurious. It also indicates the main scenarios for leveling the effects of digital poverty.