Platform monopolies are also monopsonies over the data users produce

Evidence

One reason the Cloud Empire is so successful at appropriating all of human life is because its biggest corporations can dominate our data relations both as sellers and buyers. Companies such as Google act as monopolies, “selling” us (sometimes providing to us for “free”) every device or service we need to live our datafied lives. But Google also acts as what economists call a monopsony, that is, the single buyer of all the data we produce (the identification of monopsony as the dominant market structure of the internet was made by one of us back in 2013 and has since become commonplace). A monopsony means that although digital tools have empowered us to become producers instead of mere consumers of media, there are limited options for choosing which platforms to participate in. Those of a certain demographic wanting to join a social networking site will probably join Facebook, because that is where their friends are more likely to be. Those wanting to upload videos of cats are highly incentivized to use YouTube, because that is where most users are likely to watch; and so on. We—the producers of data—are legion, but the buyers of what we produce are few. A platform, in particular, is the perfect medium for monopsony, a means to produce social content for capital. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 174

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces monopsony (single buyer of data) as the defining market structure of the internet — a precise term of art central to the rival-school critique.
• XREF: Contrasts with the attention-economy frame: instead of platforms capturing attention, monopsony frames platforms as the sole purchasers of user-produced data. This is a key point of divergence for the reader’s comparative work. — connects to: Platform power rests on structural influence over data, not revenue size. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 206; Cooperative platforms cannot compete with entrenched data monopolies — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 100; Platform profit comes from commodifying user data by-products rather than selling ads — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 40 (+6 more)
• SEED: The double role of ‘seller to us and sole buyer from us’ is a strong hook for a piece on how platform power differs from classical market power.

Broader Connections

• Monopoly practices protect data supply routes rather than raising prices #exemplifies (0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 419
• Platform profit comes from commodifying user data by-products rather than selling ads #complicates (0.80) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 40
• Cooperative platforms cannot compete with entrenched data monopolies #expands (0.78) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 100
• Platform competition shifts from price to data as the competitive criterion #expands (0.78) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 81