# Platform companies

`kaal:entity:platform-companies`

**Status.** derived

This node is assembled mechanically from the 4 claims that carry the concept tag `platform-companies`. It is a roster of what the corpus says under this term. It is **not** an adjudicated definition: no single statement here has been ruled canonical, and no first-appearance call has been made. Read the claims and judge for yourself.

## Every claim under this term

4 claims across 3 works, 2017 to 2021.

**2017**

- [2922176-003](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2922176-003) [mechanism/argued] -- Platform disruptors such as Uber and Airbnb did not decentralize their industries by eliminating intermediaries; they decentralized by replacing incumbent intermediaries with algorithmic ones.
  > industries respectively not by eliminating intermediaries but by replacing them.
  Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, The ‘Unmediated’ and ‘Tech-Driven’ Corporate Governance of Today's Winning Companies (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2922176
- [2922176-019](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2922176-019) [definitional/argued] -- Platform companies embrace an unmediated, flat, and inclusive culture in which trust and value are generated through the platform itself rather than through the management of workers and physical assets.
  > Most importantly, platform companies embrace an unmediated, flat, and inclusive culture.72 Trust and value are created through platforms, instead of the management of workers and physical assets.
  Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, The ‘Unmediated’ and ‘Tech-Driven’ Corporate Governance of Today's Winning Companies (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2922176
- [2939127-020](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2939127-020) [mechanism/argued] -- Increased connectivity enabled by blockchain technology, combined with increased decentralization, allows the removal of intermediaries including lawyers, financial intermediaries, and platform companies.
  > Increased connectivity enabled by blockchain technology in combination with increased decentralization allows for the removal of intermediaries, including lawyers, financial intermediaries, and platform companies.
  Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Legal Education in the Blockchain Revolution (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2939127

**2021**

- [3808852-013](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3808852-013) [mechanism/argued] -- Hybrid organizations combining centralized structure and profit optimization with bottom-up decentralization in the form of customer reviews generate significant success but also create tensions, because users who trust each other through ratings still demand consumer safeguards that require command-and-control structures.
  > While people are willing to trust others by way of user ratings, they also require safeguards for consumers that typically require command-and-control centralized structures.
  Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization and Feedback Effects (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808852

## Verify

Every claim above resolves to a record carrying a verbatim source quote, the sha256 of the source PDF, and a preformatted citation. Nothing here asks to be taken on trust.

    curl -s https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/platform-companies.md | sha256sum

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of this entity node. Its sha256 is the content hash.