Digital Transformation and the Evolution of the Platform Economy

This chapter provides an overview of the evolution of the platform economy through the lens of digital transformation and transit from Industry 3.0 (I3.0) to Industry 4.0 (I4.0). The platform economy belongs to both I3.0 and I4.0 and goes through two cycles of digital transformation within them. In I3.0, the starting point of the platform economy is the digitization of social and commercial interactions over user-generated content. The resulting issues of trust and regulation of user interactions find solutions in new business models based on online reputation systems and algorithmic regulation. The specificity of I4.0 is the tendency to platform products, homes, factories, and cities through broad digitization of interactions between humans and things, and things and things. For the platform economy, the new cycle of digital transformation in the context of I4.0 means creating business models based on the ultimate customization of both the production and consumption of product-as-platforms and the rental of digital product models.