The politics of platform power in surveillance capitalism: A comparative case study of ride-hailing platforms in China and the United States

Abstract

This article uses a comparative case study of two ride-hailing platforms—DiDi Chuxing in China and Uber in the United States—to explore the comparative politics of platform power in surveillance capitalism. Surveillance capitalism is an emerging economic system that translates human experiences into surveillance assets for behavioral predictions and modifications. Through this comparative study, we demonstrate how DiDi and Uber articulate their operational legitimacy for advancing their corporate interests and visions of datafication in the face of legal uncertainty. Although DiDi and Uber are both “sectoral platforms” in urban mobility with similar visions of datafication and infrastructuralization, we highlight that they deploy different discursive legitimation strategies. Our study shows that Uber adopts a “confrontational” strategy, while DiDi employs a “collaborative” strategy when they need to legitimize their data and business practices to the public and regulatory authorities. This study offers a comparative lens to examine the social and political dynamics of platform firms based in China and the United States and, therefore, contributes to understanding the various aspirational logic of platform thinking in different political contexts.

Surveillance infrastructure in China: Key concepts and mechanisms enhancing the Party-state’s governance ambitions

“…This state-private relationship has also yielded distinct benefits for technology firms, given that they are placed in a position to draft construction standards of monitoring equipment, thus enhancing the interdependence of state-private relationship along with their profit margins. Private companies also deploy discursive legitimation strategies that stress collaboration and compliance with the government (Chan & Kwok, 2022).…”

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“…These reshaped discursive infrastructures, and the imaginaries that emerge from them, can prove materially consequential by influencing the dispositions of infrastructural resources for different actors in both the “representational economy,” where people rely on “sign vehicles” to make sense of the socio-economic world, and the political economy, where people make material decisions (Keane, 2018, p. 80). A good example is found to Chan & Kwok (2022)'s study of how e-hailing platforms in China and the United States strategize differently in these two legitimatization contexts in order to manage legal uncertainties, address regulators, and communicate with various publics. The platforms not only speak to the representational world trying to influence the discursive publics about what they can do, but also to the material world where “real money” can be lost if they failed to legitimize their practices.…”

The role of citizens in platform governance: A case study on public consultations regarding online content regulation in the European Union

“…Similarly, de Kloet et al, have called for ‘[steering] away from geopolitical binarism’ to avoid reinforcing ‘the dichotomy of China versus the West’ (2019, p. 250). For instance, a comparative analysis of a ride-hailing platforms in China and the United States, namely Uber and DiDi, found that ‘both share relatively similar visions of datafication and [infrastructuralisation] and they both intentionally exploit the legal [grey] zones for profit-making’ despite differing in how they seek legitimisation vis-à-vis state power (Chan & Kwok, 2022, p. 143).…”