Tracing the Evolution of Two Gig Platforms
A Comparative Analysis of Deliveroo and Upwork

Project by

Niels van Doorn
Senior Fellow 2023–2024

This project, co-led with Niels Beerepoot (Associate Professor in Economic Geography, University of Amsterdam), examines the development of two platform companies since their inception in 2013, to better understand what factors explain both heterogeneity and convergence in their respective business trajectories. So far, scholarship on platform-mediated labor lacks historical analyses of platform development, particularly comparative and geographically sensitive approaches. By conducting a comparative analysis of the evolution of an online freelancing platform (Upwork) and a food delivery platform (Deliveroo), this project aims to offer new insights into the variegated business strategies, industry dynamics, regional path-dependencies, and institutional arrangements of what is too often treated as a monolithic “gig economy”.

Besides this project, Niels will work on a new book based on his Platform Labor research project. The manuscript is provisionally entitled The Platform Fix: Actually Existing Platformization in Post-Welfare Cities.

Related Events

Continuity and Change
Reflecting on over a Decade of Platform-Mediated Gig Work

Co-organized by Niels van Doorn

June 4, 2024, 9:00–17:00 

Workshop