Informal matching groups: A distinct platform economy form

Abstract

The literature on the platform economy has been dominated by extractive corporate platforms, but also includes research on collaborative forms aimed at mutuality and sharing. We present a third option, informal matching groups, which facilitate peer-topeer economic exchanges by parasitically using existing social media infrastructure. Informal matching groups scale organically and exist for many types of exchange and labor. They differ from the two other forms in that their purpose is neither oriented to collaboration or profit extraction. We analyze the case of childcare matching groups that operate on Facebook, via interviews with administrators and users in the Boston area. The non-extractive, open and free nature of these groups suggests they are in some ways a sharing variant. However, in contrast to many collaborative forms, they attract large user-bases, and are not ideologically motivated. In comparison with a matched corporate platform, Care.com, we find broadly similar labor outcomes, with respect to job availability and working conditions. Furthermore, like the extractive entities, each group has a centralized governance system. Informal matching groups lack democratic forms of control and reproduce existing social inequalities, even when managed by administrators driven by social justice ideals. We therefore argue that scholars should consider them as a distinct, third type, which may offer opportunities to transcend some of the shortcomings of existing platform entities.