ECOANTITRUST

Digital platforms have long understood themselves as ecosystems and adopted an ecosystem mindset toward growth, competition, and governance. The ecosystem approach has helped the digital platform business model become one of the most successful in the last three decades and proliferate beyond the bounds of regulatory jurisdictions. This bodes the question: is regulation still in a mechanistic trap?

Until recently, most competition authorities have prioritized consumer welfare and efficiency in their approach to regulate industry markets. However, the multisided nature of the platform economy means that monitoring of markets must consider not just consumer welfare, but also the welfare of complementors, third parties, and all participants of digital platform ecosystems (DPE) in the short and long term.

A person using digital communication leaves behind a trail of information on their activities, their interactions, and even some about who they are. Social media has become quintessential to the modern lives of billions of people which means that billions of trails are recorded on social media and communications platforms. This data has come to be a treasure trove of aggregated information which scientists can use to decipher the most unique trends and behaviors on a societal level. As part of her ongoing research at ASA, Elena Rovenskaya presented on the significance of social media as a source of information for science and its usefulness in understanding complex systems behaviors.