Digital platforms have displaced markets and profit with feudal rent extraction

Evidence

Markets, the medium of capitalism, have been replaced by digital trading platforms which look like, but are not, markets, and are better understood as fiefdoms. And profit, the engine of capitalism, has been replaced with its feudal predecessor: rent. Specifically, it is a form of rent that must be paid for access to those platforms and to the cloud more broadly. I call it cloud rent. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 16

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definition of cloud rent as the fee paid for platform and cloud access.
• SEED: Article angle comparing cloud-rent extraction to historical feudal dues on common land access.
• XREF: connects to: Platforms replace markets with fiefdoms and profit with cloud rent; Zero marginal costs force platforms to extract rent rather than earn profit — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 999; Networked digital technologies spawned by capitalism are enabling its replacement by technofeudalism — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 116 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Platforms replace markets with fiefdoms and profit with cloud rent #corroborates (0.95)
• Digital networks that capitalism spawned are replacing capitalism with a new feudalism. #corroborates (0.90)
• Zero marginal costs force platforms to extract rent rather than earn profit #expands (0.85) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 999
• Networked digital technologies spawned by capitalism are enabling its replacement by technofeudalism #corroborates (0.80) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 116