Platform capitalism: a socio-economic analysis

Abstract

The emergence of multinational platforms organizing the interplay of a multiplicity of firms and consumers is analysed by regulation theory approach. The fall of Yahoo! and then the rise of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Wikipedia give an unprecedented impetus to the construction of new eco-system led by a constant flow of innovations on information. Can it define a new configuration in the history of capitalisms? Against the hypothesis of a technological determinism, various types of platform may coexist and delineate contrasted reconfigurations of the modern world: a market led platform capitalism in the USA, a panoptic control society in China, whereas ideally the European Union aims at converting information into a global Common, monitored by citizens.