Imprinting Digital Unicorns: Financialization of the Labor Process on Mature Platforms

• In Event: 50267 - Finance and Labor

Abstract

This paper explores how financialization transforms labor processes as digital platforms transition from venture capital-backed start-ups to publicly traded companies. While early-stage platforms prioritize hyper-growth by attracting flexible labor with minimal oversight, mature platforms shift toward stability and compliance to align with stock market valuation models. This shift restructures labor organization in ways that challenge conventional views of financialization as purely cost-cutting.

Drawing on fieldwork from two leading ride-hailing platforms in China, this study identifies two key mechanisms of labor reorganization. First, platforms consolidate workers into full-time roles by linking vehicle ownership to employment, ensuring a stable workforce while financially binding drivers to the platform. Second, platforms introduce financial instruments like “Surge Pricing Cards,” transferring economic risks onto workers while reinforcing labor discipline.

By examining the financialization of platform labor, this study highlights how stock market-driven valuation models shape platform operations and worker experiences. It reveals a new mechanism linking corporate financialization to individual financial dependence, offering insights into the evolving tensions between financial markets, regulatory frameworks, and labor in the digital economy.

Authors

• Xiaoting Lu, University of Virginia

• Jiachi Zhuang, Princeton University, Central University of Finance and Economic (China)