Week 6: The Digital Economy
The video titled “Introducing Airbnb.org” tells the story and unfolds the idea of Airbnb from one community to another. It focuses on raising awareness of the ways the company provides help to both response to catastrophes and support humanitarian actions, demonstrate how hosts and guests can help make a positive change in the world. At a glance, the video portrays Airbnb as a friendly and even civic player in the digital periphery economy. In a way, storytelling is sincere and emotionally engaging, positioning the platform as the advocate of people’s unity and local initiatives, and enlisting people’s trust in technology as a solution to global problems. Nevertheless, what is hidden behind this well-glossed picture, and which relations are embodied therein, speaks not only about platform capitalism but also about the dominant ideology behind it. On balance, this work is quite compatible with what had been termed “California ideology”, nicely described by Barbrook and Cameron. Airbnb still locates itself beyond mere commerce and instead frames its product as having meaningful positive impacts. Airbnb.org provides meaningful opportunities to hosts and guests to be a part of the relief-process underlining the belief in technology as a fair resource distributor. These messages are particularly beneficial for the target audiences that appreciate social justice and novelty; therefore, they make Airbnb’s identity clearer: it is a progressive platform.
But this narrative conceals the fact and conditions of platform capitalism that have a determinant structural role and the economics of platforms. In their view, self-represented platforms such as Airbnb aspire to democracy by designing themselves as distributing power and money across numerous users. Airbnb’s business strategy indeed essentially lies in the monetization of interpersonal encounters – hosts post apartments, guests select homes and Airbnb takes substantial commissions for it. Though, such connections are made through the platform, most costs and financial responsibilities are borne by the hosts. Those are the expenses on property management, adherence to local regulations, and variations holding and even loss, while Airbnb benefits, often with little to no responsibility. The social and economic aspect of Airbnb has also been criticized by different scholars as follows. For instance, problems around housing shortage in a number of cities have been associated with such platforms as Airbnb. From the fact that Airbnb provides rooms and apartments, where people live permanently, for tourists, the availability of rooms for ordinary citizens may increase the price per room and become less available. These matters evidence a worrying gap between the Airbnb representation of the company as friendly and culturally diverse and its financial effect. Although it describes itself as a community-oriented platform, more often than not, it weakens the position of minorities and displaces them outright.
But the arrival of the message ‘Introducing Airbnb.org’ is not simply an addition to this picture: it is an appeal to the emotion. Essentially what the video discards is any criticism towards structures because it fixes its attribution and concern on the people, hence, what it does is humanize the platform. This strategy is consistent with a pattern observed in other parts of the digital economy where local control and individual agency are celebrated, and where companies avoid Collective accountability. Airbnb builds a story that emotionally resonates with viewers while presenting the elements of systemic issues present on the platform. Finally, thus, Airbnb’s story illustrates that double-edged sword which the digital economy often appears to represent. On one hand, the platform offers potentialities for people to join global networks and help important initiatives. The programs like Airbnb.org show the role an advancement in technology plays in driving growth of positive effects in the society where resources and people are connected in moments of need. At the same time, the relation between Airbnb and other platforms only strengthens these dynamics because it creates a centralized concentration of the power in several overwhelming platforms. This concrete tension between platform utopias and the economics of platform work is tremendously indicative of platform capitalism in general.