[Commlist] new book: The Platform Economy

new publication from the University of Minnesota Press

*The Platform Economy***

How Japan Transformed the Consumer Internet

*Marc Steinberg***

*_https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/the-platform-economy _**__*

Offering a deeper understanding of todays internet media and the 
management theory behind it.

Platforms are everywhere. From social media to chat, streaming, credit 
cards, and even bookstores, it seems like almost everything can be 
described as a platform. In /The Platform Economy/, Marc Steinberg 
argues that the platformization of capitalism has transformed 
everything, and it is imperative that we have a historically precise, 
robust understanding of this widespread concept. Taking Japan as the key 
site for global platformization, Steinberg delves into that nations 
unique technological and managerial trajectory, in the process 
systematically examining every facet of the elusive word platform. Among 
the untold stories revealed here is that of the 1999 iPhone precursor, 
the i-mode: the worlds first widespread mobile internet platform, which 
became a blueprint for Apple and Googles later dominance of the mobile 
market. Steinberg also charts the rise of social gaming giants GREE and 
Mobage, chat tools KakaoTalk, WeChat, and LINE, and video streaming site 
Niconico Video, as well as the development of platform theory in Japan, 
as part of a wider transformation of managerial theory to account for 
platforms as mediators of cultural life. Analyzing platforms immense 
impact on contemporary media such as video streaming, music, and gaming, 
/The Platform Economy/ fills in neglected parts of the platform story. 
In narrating the rise and fall of Japanese platforms, and the enduring 
legacy of Japanese platform theory, this book sheds light on 
contemporary tech titans like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Netflix, and 
their platform-mediated transformation of contemporary life-it is 
essential reading for anyone wanting to understand what capitalism is 
today and where it is headed.

With all best wishes,

Combined Academic Publishers

*University of Minnesota Press**| January 2019 | 304pp | 9781517906955 | 
PB | £20.99**

*Price subject to change.

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