The Uberisation of Everything

Abstract

This chapter addresses the rise of platforms through the lens of platform economics, a particular sub-field of microeconomics active since the dot-com era. This field has developed important insights into specific tactics of platform influence. Key focus areas include the use of `steering' tactics to engineer value-sharing, relational forms of platform intermediation and the framing of markets through the lens of platform ecosystems. This chapter addresses not only the widespread advocacy of platform business models across diverse economies, but also how data accumulation has emerged as a significant tactic of market `steering' and value extraction within platform ecosystems, which ensure platform companies can leverage programmability and interconnection in order to entrench value capture and also influence. The financialisation of platform intermediation is also discussed in the context of key urban services, including office space provision, design and construction and transportation. The integration of platform intermediation and financialisation, achieved in the context of datafication, is discussed as being critical to the constantly speculative pursuit of platform scale.