The mechanism of commodification involves platforms transforming online and…
2022
The mechanism of commodification involves platforms transforming online and offline objects, activities, emotions and ideas into tradable commodities. These commodities are valued through four different types of currency: attention, data, users and money. Commodification is intensified by mechanisms of datafication as the massive amount of user data is collected and processed by online platforms.
This provides insight into users' interests, preferences and needs at particular moments in time. It also ties into mechanisms of selection as these users are connected with personalized services and advertisements. Commodification includes, but does not equal, business models of singular platforms. Rather, the mechanism plays out in the multi-sided markets created through the platform ecosystem, which connects the infrastructural core with sectoral platforms.
Commodification mechanisms are simultaneously empowering and disempowering to users. The connector platforms allow individual users to market their personal assets or experiences online - be it their apartments, ride, eyewitness report or video. They help commodify users' activity, enabling users to become entrepreneurs in their own right. On the other hand, the same platform mechanisms of commodification involve the exploitation of cultural labour, labour of users and on-demand service workers. Furthermore, these mechanisms lead to a concentration of economic power in the hands of a few platform owners and operators who act as aggregators and gatekeeping mediators.
When massive amounts of user data are processed by online platforms, it is known as
Answer: D. Datafication — ConceptDatafication is the process of turning actions, interactions, and other aspects of life into quantifiable digital data. Platforms can then collect and…
- A.
Personalised service
- B.
Selection mechanism
- C.
Data ecosystem
- D.
Datafication
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept
Datafication is the process of turning actions, interactions, and other aspects of life into quantifiable digital data. Platforms can then collect and process those data to identify patterns about users.
It is distinct from the later use of those data to filter choices, personalize services, or organize a wider data ecosystem.
Application
The passage specifically describes massive amounts of user data being collected and processed by online platforms. That described conversion and processing of user activity as data is datafication.
Contrast
Personalised service is an output tailored to a user after data have been analysed.
A selection mechanism filters, ranks, or connects users with services and advertisements.
A data ecosystem is the broader network of actors, technologies, and data flows.
Cross-check
The passage itself uses the term “datafication” immediately before explaining the collection and processing of massive user data. Therefore, the answer is Datafication.