Monopolization and competition under platform capitalism: Analyzing transformations in the computing industry

Abstract

Cross-disciplinary scholarship on platform-mediated transformations is growing rapidly. Large-scale data centers that aggregate hardware resources are an important element shaping the expansion of platform economies. The impact of this configuration of hardware on the dynamics of software development is still unclear. Data centers aggregate and centralize computing capacity and in turn enable the growth of globally distributed and organizationally decentralized corporate ecosystems. Scholarship in this area is beginning to examine the relations between dominant technology corporations and their networks of users and third-party companies. I contribute to literature on platform ecosystems by examining changing organizational and market dynamics introduced by cloud computing within the corporate computing sector. Drawing on qualitative interviews with managers of software startups in India, I focus on falling barriers to entry, new organizational forms, and emergent transnational dimensions. Using this case, I theorize monopolization as being embedded in competitive ecosystem dynamics.