What are platforms? Definition, examples, and why they are so powerful

For the Utrecht University website I did a nice long interview about our book on Platforms: A Critical Introduction (Polity, 2026) co-authored with Fernando van der Vlist. Platforms are everywhere. From Instagram, Spotify and Netflix to Google, Deliveroo and ChatGPT. Many of us use them every single day. Platform researcher Anne Helmond (Utrecht University) explains how… Read more What are platforms? Definition, examples, and why they are so powerful

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Entry on “The Feed” for Imagining the Internet(s): A Collaborative Glossary

Very happy to have contributed a short piece on “the feed” for Imagining the Internet(s): A Collaborative Glossary, bringing me back to my early dissertation times when I started studying feeds, APIs, and other syndication protocols. The glossary brings together 28 entries to think about the internet as an imagined object: affordances and infrastructural ideologies,… Read more Entry on “The Feed” for Imagining the Internet(s): A Collaborative Glossary

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New book – Platforms: A Critical Introduction (Polity)

Platforms Everywhere: Understanding What Platforms Are and How to Study Them For years, much of public and academic debates about platforms revolved around social media. Today, attention has shifted toward artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructures, and AI platforms. Yet many of the underlying concerns remain the same: concentration of power, data extraction, infrastructure dependency, governance, and… Read more New book – Platforms: A Critical Introduction (Polity)

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The datafied web: a round-doc discussion

In this discussion we examine the notion of the datafied web by situating it historically and methodologically. By mobilizing insights from a range of fields, the discussion broadens the conceptual and methodological approaches and tools available for studying the datafied web. A dialogue between Migle Bareikyte, Carolin Gerlitz, Sebastian Giessmann, Jonathan W. Y. Gray, Anne… Read more The datafied web: a round-doc discussion

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The Platformization of Everything: From the End of the Like Button to AI Infrastructure in Space

Over ten years ago I coined the term ‘platformization’ (2015) to understand how platforms expand beyond their own boundaries in Social Media + Society. Editor Zizi Papacharissi invited me, along others, to celebrate the journal’s 10 years’ anniversary by reflecting on a decade of platformization. The Platformization of Everything: From the End of the Like… Read more The Platformization of Everything: From the End of the Like Button to AI Infrastructure in Space

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App ecosystem analysis

A new book chapter by Fernando van der Vlist, Anne Helmond and Esther Weltevrede in The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media (edited by Gerard Goggin and Larissa Hjorth, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003166016-38. This chapter introduces methods for analysing app ecosystems, emphasizing that apps are not stand-alone entities but exist within larger ecosystems. It outlines three approaches: apps “for… Read more App ecosystem analysis

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