Tech companies are best understood as profit-seeking capitalist actors

Evidence

The present book aims to supplement these other perspectives by giving an economic history of capitalism and digital technology, while recognising the diversity of economic forms and the competitive tensions inherent in the contemporary economy. The simple wager of the book is that we can learn a lot about major tech companies by taking them to be economic actors within a capitalist mode of production. This means abstracting from them as cultural actors defined by the values of the Californian ideology, or as political actors seeking to wield power. By contrast, these actors are compelled to seek out profits in order to fend off competition. This places strict limits on what constitutes possible and predictable expectations of what is likely to occur. Most notably, capitalism demands that firms constantly seek out new avenues for profit, new markets, new commodities, and new means of exploitation. For some, this focus on capital rather than labour may suggest a vulgar econo-mism; but, in a world where the labour movement has been significantly weakened, giving capital a priority of agency seems only to reflect reality. — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 14

Categorization

• XREF: Direct contrast to Zuboff, who reads Google et al. as wielding a new form of power (‘instrumentarian’) beyond mere profit logic. Srnicek’s insistence on the profit-compulsion is the sharp philosophical break. — connects to: For-profit tech firms cannot sustain gift economies despite their ideals — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 140; Tech companies promote personal openness because it drives their profits, not democracy — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 622; Tech entrepreneurs disguise wealth-seeking as idealism to claim status — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 676
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that giving capital priority of agency ‘reflects reality’ in an era of weakened labour movement reframes what counts as vulgar economism — a genuine paradigm-level stance.

Related

• For-profit tech firms cannot sustain gift economies despite their ideals (similarity 0.81)