Platform cooperative

A platform cooperative, or platform co-op, is a cooperatively-owned, democratically-governed business that uses a protocol, website or mobile app to facilitate the sale of goods and services. Platform cooperatives are an alternative to venture capital funded platforms insofar as they are owned and governed by those who depend on them most—workers, users, and other relevant stakeholders. Proponents of platform cooperativism claim that, by ensuring the financial and social value of a platform circulate among these participants, platform cooperatives will bring about a more equitable and fair digitally-mediated economy in contrast with the extractive models of corporate intermediaries. Platform cooperatives differ from traditional cooperatives not only due to their use of digital technologies, but also by their contribution to the commons for the purpose of fostering an equitable social and economic landscape.

Platform cooperativism draws upon other attempts at digital disintermediation, including the peer-to-peer production movement, led by Michel Bauwens and the P2P Foundation, which advocates for “new kinds of democratic and economic participation” that rest “upon the free participation of equal partners, engaged in the production of common resources,” as well as the radically-distributed, non-market mechanisms of networked peer-production promoted by Yochai Benkler. Marjorie Kelly's book Owning Our Future contributed the distinction between democratic and extractive ownership design to this discussion.

While there is no commonly accepted typology of platform cooperatives, researchers often ontologize platform cooperatives by industry. Some potential categories include: transportation, on-demand labor, journalism, music, creative projects, timebank, film, home health care, photography, data cooperatives, marketplaces. Other typologies differentiate platform cooperatives by their governance or ownership structures.

Many platform co-operatives use business models similar to better-known apps or web services, but with a cooperative structure. For example, there are numerous driver-owned taxi apps that allow customers to submit trip requests and notify the nearest driver, similar to Uber.

The Internet of Ownership website includes a directory of the platform co-op "ecosystem."

is a platform cooperative headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia. It is a “highly curated collection of royalty-free stock photography and video footage that is ‘beautiful, distinctive, and highly usable.’” Stocksy’s website says, describing its ethos, “We believe in creative integrity, fair profit sharing, and co-ownership, with every voice being heard,” which has been claimed to be “a tribute to the operating ethos of any Platform Cooperative.” In 2015, Stocksy earned $7.9 million in sales—doubling its revenues from the year prior—and paid a dividend of $200,000 to its members.

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Wikipedia