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beatriz1998's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
“Las plataformas son, como resultado, mucho más que empresas de Internet o empresas de tecnología, dado que pueden operar en cualquier parte, donde sea que tenga lugar la interacción digital.”
benrogerswpg's review
4.0
This was an excellent book on the capitalism-background behind today's digital platforms.
I found it very interesting and a very good analysis on the various economical and business models of the future of digital.
4.7/5
I found it very interesting and a very good analysis on the various economical and business models of the future of digital.
4.7/5
awkseance's review
3.0
Three and a half. Quite a short book and more of a helpful pamphlet that reviews where we have been, what's going on, and where we are going. I would like to see more and more people in the tech industry grapple with these concepts
colin_cox's review
4.0
In Platform Capitalism, Nick Srnicek asks a simple but profoundly relevant question: how are tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook behaving within a capitalist mode of production? In an attempt to answer this question, Srnicek considers the platforms or digital infrastructures that these companies build, use, and disseminate. Furthermore, Srnicek investigates the ways in which data and data mining have become an increasingly pernicious preoccupation for tech companies.
Srnicek's short but shrewdly written book offers a frustrating picture of the future of capitalism as digital entities such as Google and Amazon attempt to consolidate the future of commerce and communication. Srnicek's most profound insight centers on the question of monopolies and the ways in which digital platforms create monopolistic conditions for everyone involved. Srnicek writes, "A tendency towards monopolisation is built into the DNA of platforms: the more numerous the users who interact on a platform, the more valuable the entire platform becomes for each one of them" (95). This potential dynamic is problematic because we remain in a vulnerable period where norms are being established. The fear for Srnicek is that platforms will not be one way among many of interacting digitally but the way of interacting digitally. Srnicek describes examples such as Facebook's "chatbots" which would interact with users on Facebook's platform. According to Srnicek, these systems create singular or enclosed experiences, so users "rather than using a separate app or website...would simply access them through Facebook's platform, which would make Facebook's chatbot platform the primary interface for commercial transactions online" (105-106). By these terms, the Internet is becoming a closed rather an open space, which is in complete contradiction to the original guiding ethos of the Internet (or so the narrative goes). Furthermore, by closing what activities and experiences are possible online, users are unaware that something was taken from them because this is simply how the Internet works.
If this trend continues, Srnicek argues that the Internet may become a series of smaller, enclosed, and fragmented Internets. A move toward expanded privatization is not a good thing because the enclosure of the Internet mirrors the enclosures visible in non-digital spaces. Therefore, the Internet will exist, as it has in non-digital spaces, for an increasingly privileged minority.
Srnicek's short but shrewdly written book offers a frustrating picture of the future of capitalism as digital entities such as Google and Amazon attempt to consolidate the future of commerce and communication. Srnicek's most profound insight centers on the question of monopolies and the ways in which digital platforms create monopolistic conditions for everyone involved. Srnicek writes, "A tendency towards monopolisation is built into the DNA of platforms: the more numerous the users who interact on a platform, the more valuable the entire platform becomes for each one of them" (95). This potential dynamic is problematic because we remain in a vulnerable period where norms are being established. The fear for Srnicek is that platforms will not be one way among many of interacting digitally but the way of interacting digitally. Srnicek describes examples such as Facebook's "chatbots" which would interact with users on Facebook's platform. According to Srnicek, these systems create singular or enclosed experiences, so users "rather than using a separate app or website...would simply access them through Facebook's platform, which would make Facebook's chatbot platform the primary interface for commercial transactions online" (105-106). By these terms, the Internet is becoming a closed rather an open space, which is in complete contradiction to the original guiding ethos of the Internet (or so the narrative goes). Furthermore, by closing what activities and experiences are possible online, users are unaware that something was taken from them because this is simply how the Internet works.
If this trend continues, Srnicek argues that the Internet may become a series of smaller, enclosed, and fragmented Internets. A move toward expanded privatization is not a good thing because the enclosure of the Internet mirrors the enclosures visible in non-digital spaces. Therefore, the Internet will exist, as it has in non-digital spaces, for an increasingly privileged minority.