The Evolution of the Global Digital Platform Economy : 1971-2021

The emergence of digital technologies has significantly reduced the economic costs of data—search, storage, computation, transmission—and enabled new economic activities. Over the years, firms able to create a platform-based ecosystem have become a force of “creative destruction.” Economic activities (C2C, B2C, B2B) have been reorganized around platform-based ecosystems for value creation and value appropriation, which are orchestrated by multisided platforms via the “digital hand.” To further understanding of the Digital Platform Economy (DPE), this paper provides a conceptual framework consisting of three interrelated concepts: digital technology infrastructure, multisided digital platforms, and platform-based ecosystems (users and entrepreneurs). Quantifying the DPE uncovers a European lag in platformization relative to the United States and Asia; European incumbent firms have not introduced new technologies in sufficient volume, and startups there have remained small and not scalable