Why Do We Live in a World of Platforms? A Proposal for Moving from Business to Platforms in the 21st Century

It is surprising how often platforms are used in modern techno-discourse. There are platforms that help you manage your accounts across other platforms, advertising platforms, social media platforms, cloud platforms, product platforms and platforms for dog walking. “Platform businesses” constitute some of the largest, fastest growing businesses in high- and middle-income economies, serving as near monopolies in many cases. At the margins, there are technological evangelists excitedly proclaiming that the body itself might soon become a platform (if it hasn’t already been transformed into one under our noses). We are, in short, living in a world of “platformania,” as the authors of the recent book The Business of Platforms have phrased it.

We should pause to think about the issue of this axiomatic to our understanding of modern digital culture. When it comes to large-scale apparatuses, however, blurriness tends to be a feature, not a bug.

Real versus ideal: A duality between concrete and abstract in the usages of the term on rail platforms, and the Grand Central train platform at Grand Central

The history of the term shows a tension between the real and ideal on contemporary platforms. When tracing the usage of the term, one sees a constant back-and-forth between these two poles. Think of the transitions between platte fourme as a ground plan, platform, or body of beliefs. The term seems to confuse between concrete and abstract. Look closer and we can see that this dualism is found even in its ostensibly straightforward usages. Railroad platform, for example, refers not only to the literal surface on which one can drop their luggage while waiting for a train, but also the conceptual interface that allows passengers, train conductors, and timetables to work harmoniously. These train platforms are not simply physical waiting areas, but zones integrated into a larger informational network; Platform 5 at Grand Central is both a tangible place made of concrete and steel, and an informational node that must coordinate with a broader system to ensure the proper departure and arrivals of trains.