{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4","title":"State Platform Capitalism","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781009619714","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4","id":"d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4","uuid":"d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4","title":"State Platform Capitalism","normalized_title":"stateplatformcapitalism","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781009619714","isbns":["9781009619714","9781009446594","9781009446587"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":98,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/State%20Platform%20Capitalism","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d06b946b-6924-4f30-afbd-92f915edbae4/search"},"page":{"printed_page":15,"pdf_page":20,"physical_index":20,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"eda2343948365d63d0c0a940130e5290ef332a06d936808491ddb5c7b1ff67e5"},"chapter":"Cambridge Elements","content":"2.3 Platform Capitalism\n\n[W]hat is internet infrastructure? Of course, there are data centres and massive server farms. There are devices produced by a handful ofcompanies, and operating systems . . . we must also include labour and practice, content moderation, device manufacture in Shenzhen, rare earth mineral mining, etc. – all of which is infrastructure . . . What affordances sit below the thing we are seeing on the surface? Who owns those affordances? These are the questions we should be answering. (Meredith Whittaker et al. 2020)\n\nAs state capitalist practices expanded during the 2010s, observers fixated on another, perhaps more dazzling, trend: the emergence ofplatform capitalism. More than simply the digitalization of economies and societies, platform capitalism is characterized by the astonishing ascendance of platform companies to the heights of the global economy (Table 1). Observers of Forbes’ Global 500 ranking of top corporations in 2007 would not find a technology company near its top-25 positions, which were dominated by oil producers, auto firms, and banks. But digital behemoths like Amazon, Google/Alphabet, and Apple skyrocketed to the top ofsuch lists in the decade after 2008. As of2025, seven ofthe world’s twenty-five top firms by market value are platform businesses (Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Tencent, and SAP; see Table 1). Other major hardware firms generate the bulk of their businesses by selling hardware and services to these digital giants (NVIDIA, TSMC, Broadcom, and ASML). And manufacturers of digital devices such as Samsung and Tesla employ platform business models, as does the retailer Walmart in its online marketplace.\n\nPlatforms, many ofwhich predate the global economic crisis, grew rapidly in the post-crisis era. This is in large part because they offer a business strategy suited to a world of slow growth and low interest rates (Srnicek, 2017; Davis, 2022). Platforms’ business strategies can in this way be understood as an ‘organizational fix’ to the challenge posed by secular stagnation of economies. In the 2010s, Western financial sectors were flush with cash thanks to quantitative easing, bond purchasing programmes, and other mechanisms put in place to prop up the financial sector. Of the estimated \\$35 trillion in credit created by central banks between 2009 and 2022, Varoufakis (2024) estimates that a large majority of the share invested in productive assets found its way into the platform economy. This took place via myriad mechanisms, including saturated corporate bond markets, which themselves generated soaring stock markets as investors became prepared to pay a premium for tech equity; a generalized inflation in asset prices; and a flood of private equity and venture capital into technology startups (which could be acquired, or have their innovations acquired, by hyperscalers) (Kenney and Zysman, 2019; Rikap, 2024).\n\nState Platform Capitalism\n\n15","previous_page":14,"next_page":16}