The digital economy

Boasting trillion-dollar companies, the digital economy profits from our emotions, our relationships with each other, and the ways we interact with the world. In this timely book, Tim Jordan deftly explores the workings of the digital economy. He discusses the significance of its activities and practices in order to outline important concepts, theories and policy questions. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, he examines the areas of search, social media, service providers, free economic activity and digital gaming. The platforms and games discussed include Google, Baidu, Uber, Bitcoin, Wikipedia, Fortnight and World of Warcraft. Jordan argues that the digital economy is not concerned primarily with selling products, but relies instead on creating communities that can be read by software and algorithms. Profit is then extracted through targeted advertising, subscriptions, misleading ‘purchases’, and service relations.