Open Evidence, in collaboration with PPMI, contributed to develop the indicators to measure the online platform economy, based on three key dimensions: economic significance, power over users, consequences of the power. This was done in the context of the study on online platforms to support the Observatory for the Online Platform Economy, a two-years project that aims at providing in-depth insights on the general market trends, emerging issues, and commercial relations between online platform intermediaries, business users and consumers.
An approach to measure the platform economy was developed supporting the expert group of the Observatory of the Online Platform Economy resulting in three progress reports on issues linked with online platforms, which have recently been published by the European Commission. Based on measurement and economic indicators, the report describes a methodological approach to measure the platform economy and takes on board some findings and data visualisations developed by Open Evidence. The expert group is seeking stakeholder feedback on the three progress reports by 8 September 2020, with a view to finalising their report by end of 2020.
In the meantime, Open Evidence keeps updating its Data Lab with indicators to measure the platform economy and will monitor the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and of the entry into application of the Regulation on platform-to-business relations on platforms’ terms and conditions, activities and practices.
