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The Tech Company: On the neglected second nature of platforms
[working paper]
Corporate Editor
Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute
Abstract The unprecedented rise of startups such as Google or Amazon has spurred an ongoing debate on the conceptualization of the corporate model these firms represent. Thus far, attention has centered on the analysis of their product and market strategies highlighting their platform nature as common featur... view more
The unprecedented rise of startups such as Google or Amazon has spurred an ongoing debate on the conceptualization of the corporate model these firms represent. Thus far, attention has centered on the analysis of their product and market strategies highlighting their platform nature as common feature and its defining characteristic. By applying and scaling the platform business model these companies have been able to capture value created outside the firm. The focus on the platform nature and the evolution of their external ecosystems, however, has left the work that is done inside these companies to create and provide online platforms largely unnoticed. Against this background, the article seeks to contribute to the debate by analyzing the inner mode of production as an essential component of their corporate model. The second nature of online platform firms, it is argued, is that they are tech companies. Building on this, the article aims to reconstruct how as tech companies they have learned and perfected to continuously develop and operate the internet applications that power their online platforms at global scale.... view less
Keywords
Internet; type of organization; new technology; business concept; digitalization; enterprise; new economy
Classification
Management Science
Sociology of Work, Industrial Sociology, Industrial Relations
Free Keywords
Plattformen; Plattformökonomie; Wirtschaft; Technologieunternehmen; Unternehmensstrategie; tech workers; Cloud Computing
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
City
Berlin
Page/Pages
22 p.
Series
Weizenbaum Series, 22
ISSN
2748-5587
Status
Primary Publication; reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0
FundingThis work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII121, 16DII122, 16DII123, 16DII124, 16DII125, 16DII126, 16DII127, 16DII128 - "Deutsches Internet-Institut").