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The problem of interpreting the emerging terms of the digital economy is discussed. Examples demonstrating different understanding of the term “digital economy” by economists and information technology experts are given. We consider the basis of the digital economy - the cyberspace, as an environment of people’s activity in which any interactions are carried out due to digital data. The complexity of organizing cyberspace requires approaching the definition of the concept of the digital economy in terms of functional and structural descriptions. The functional approach has made it possible to identify three key attributes that reveal the essence of the digital economy: digital data, digital infrastructure, models of people’s activities. The activity is carried out through human interaction with natural objects through the "intermediary" - digital data. Changes in activities caused by the work with digital data, have come to be called transformation, its modern examples being medicine and transport. The examples show that the models of the digital economy involve a partial or complete rejection of human labor. The official government documents of the Russian Federation follow the functional approach to describing the concept of the digital economy: the program “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation”, decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030”. The structural description has made it possible to single out three echelons of managing the digital economy: the technological environment, the social environment, markets and industries. Each echelon has the right to make decisions within its competencies. The purpose of the technological echelon is the technical support of the digital economy, including information systems and information technology. At the level of the social environment of the digital economy, the following ones are formed: the legal regime for the development and use of digital technologies, the education and training system of the digital economy, the infrastructure of the digital economy, information security technologies for digital processes, and many others. At the level of markets and industries, spheres of activity of the digital economy are implemented. The structural approach has allowed us to propose an architectural model of the digital economy. The model is a stratified description, characterized by vertical decomposition, the sequence of digital data processing operations on each stratum, and the interconnection of performance indicators of all strata for a comprehensive assessment of the activity process as a whole.