Platforms play a huge role in today’s society. We use platforms to get in touch with family and friends, to order a taxi, and to order clothes online. One of the key characteristics of a platform is that it promotes interactions among different partners in a multi-sided market. A few examples are Uber that connects drivers with riders and YouTube that connects videographers with viewers. The more users that are active, the more value the platform gets, which will lead to more users. This is a constant process that eventually can make a platform extremely powerful.
As mentioned, different partners play an important role within a platform. Uber could not exist if there were no drivers available. Therefore, it is important to keep them happy and satisfied. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, but it is hard for platform workers to go against it.
Workers and creatives that create value for platform companies, and rely on platforms for their livelihoods, often have little power when it comes to getting their concerns addressed (Jin, Kominers & Shroff, 2021). Since platform workers often are not in direct contact with each other it is hard for them to create change. Besides, platform workers most of the time have little leverage because of an excess of willing participants on the supply side and low barriers to entry. Since individual effort has no impact on the platform, workers and creatives that create value for platforms protest collectively, which is called decentralized collective action (DCA). An example is the Twitch case, where protestors protested against the fact that creators on the platform were harassed. Collectively, they managed to decrease the views on the platform by 5% to 15% on a particular day. Thus, the protests had big impact on the company, but it only lasted for one day. This shows that even through decentralized collective action it is hard to achieve sustained impact.
In what ways do you think individuals that create value for platforms can address their concerns and achieve sustained impact? Leave your suggestions in the comments below.
Reference:
Jin, Kominers & Shroff (2021): https://hbr.org/2021/09/a-labor-movement-for-the-platform-economy
