Description

Book Synopsis
The rise of the platform economy into statelike dominance over the lives of entrepreneurs, users, and workers.

The early Internet was a lawless place, populated by scam artists who made buying or selling anything online risky business. Then Amazon, eBay, Upwork, and Apple established secure digital platforms for selling physical goods, crowdsourcing labor, and downloading apps. These tech giants have gone on to rule the Internet like autocrats. How did this happen? How did users and workers become the hapless subjects of online economic empires? The Internet was supposed to liberate us from powerful institutions. In Cloud Empires, digital economy expert Vili Lehdonvirta explores the rise of the platform economy into statelike dominance over our lives and proposes a new way forward.

Digital platforms create new marketplaces and prosperity on the Internet, Lehdonvirta explains, but they are ruled by Silicon Valley despots with little or no account

Cloud Empires

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    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Tue 30 Jun 2026.

    A Paperback by Vili Lehdonvirta

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      Publisher: MIT Press
      Publication Date: 2/6/2024 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9780262548380, 978-0262548380
      ISBN10: 0262548380
      Also in:
      Political science and theory

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      The rise of the platform economy into statelike dominance over the lives of entrepreneurs, users, and workers.

      The early Internet was a lawless place, populated by scam artists who made buying or selling anything online risky business. Then Amazon, eBay, Upwork, and Apple established secure digital platforms for selling physical goods, crowdsourcing labor, and downloading apps. These tech giants have gone on to rule the Internet like autocrats. How did this happen? How did users and workers become the hapless subjects of online economic empires? The Internet was supposed to liberate us from powerful institutions. In Cloud Empires, digital economy expert Vili Lehdonvirta explores the rise of the platform economy into statelike dominance over our lives and proposes a new way forward.

      Digital platforms create new marketplaces and prosperity on the Internet, Lehdonvirta explains, but they are ruled by Silicon Valley despots with little or no account

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