From Online Platforms to Digital Monopolies

In From Online Platforms to Digital Monopolies: Technology, Information and Power, Jonas C.L. Valente discusses the rise of platforms as key players in different social activities, from economy to culture and politics. These companies have a daily presence in the lives of the majority of the world population, from social interactions to digital payments and transactions. They are gaining a central role in neoliberal capitalism, shaping contemporary sociability.

The book shows how these platforms work and identifies the hidden interests behind the commercial strategies that guide the development of services offered to Internet users. It takes the specific cases of Google and Facebook and presents their historical development, illustrating how these companies turned into major players in our times.

ISBN: 9781642597929

Publication date: September 6, 2022

Acknowledgments
List of Figures and Tables

Introduction

1 About Technology
 1 Artefact and Technological Systems
 2 Developing Artefacts and Technological Systems
 3 Society and Technology
 4 Technology and Society
 5 Summary: The Technological Regulation Approach
 6 Values Base to Analyse Technology under Capitalism

2 Technology and Capitalist Development
 1 Technology and the Economic Sphere
 2 Technology and the Political–Institutional Sphere
 3 Technology and the Cultural Sphere

3 Information and Communication Technologies and Neoliberalism
 1 Context: The 1970s Crisis, Neoliberalism and ICT S
 2 Technology and the Economic Sphere: ICT S and Their Impacts on the Economy
 3 Impacts on Labour Relations
 4 Impacts on Competition Dynamics

4 The Technological Paradigm of Information and Communications Technologies
 1 Structural Technologies: The Internet
 2 Infrastructure: High-Speed Data Networks (Broadband)
 3 Core Input: Microprocessors
 4 Carrier Branch: Computers
 5 Emerging Technologies: Big Data, Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence

5 Digital Platforms
 1 Definitions
 2 Characteristics
 3 Typology of Digital Platforms
 4 Production Process and Labour Relations
 5 Competition on Platforms
  5.1  Business Models
  5.2  Market Structure
  5.3  Competitive Strategies
 6 Digital Monopolies
 7 Legislation and the Debate on Legal Regulation

6 Google
 1 General Technological Trajectory
 2 Rules
 3 Ownership, Control and Management Structure
 4 Production Process
 5 Competitive Performance
 6 System Components and Technical Resources
  6.1  Other Bets
 7 Dissemination
 8 Appropriation
 9 Relationship with the Values Base
  9.1  Rights Promotion and Guarantees
Damages and Violation of Rights
 10 The Technological System’s Impact on Society
 11 Analytical Overview: Google and the Fight For Online Information Control

7 Facebook
 1 General Technological Trajectory
 2 Rules
 3 Ownership, Control and Management Structure
 4 Production Process
 5 Competitive Performance
 6 System Components and Technical Resources
  6.1  Primary Technological System: Facebook
   6.1.1 Information (Newsfeed and Timeline)
   6.1.2 Connections (Friends, Groups, Pages and Events)
   6.1.3 Transactions
   6.1.4 Platform
  6.2  Secondary Subsystems
 7 Dissemination
 8 Appropriation
 9 Relationship with the Values Base
  9.1  Rights, Promotion and Guarantees
  9.2  Damages and Violation of Rights
 10 The Technological System’s Impact on Society
 11 Analytical Overview: Facebook and the Fight for Online Information Control

8 Final Considerations

References
Index