THE RISE OF THE PLATFORM ECONOMY: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF LABOUR AND CONSUMPTION IN THE CASE OF GRABCAR IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The growth of the platform economy has been spurred on by constant technological innovations, creating a new economic revolution. With the platform economy still at a nascent stage, the social impacts that it can bring about is still vague. The rise of the platform economy has the potential to change employment relation structures and also consumption patterns. Looking at the case of GrabCar, this study attempts to give a human face to the platform economy based on qualitative interviews with GrabCar driver-partners and users. This thesis reveals that the introduction of Grab in Singapore has opened up job opportunities in the labour market, but has also brought about different aspects of precarity to its workers. On the other hand, it has also created a large amount of consumer surplus but the benefits to users are not just limited to economic welfare as it was found that GrabCar has afforded them a transportation alternative that can reduce the negative emotion of anxiety. Hence, the technology behind the platform tends to favour the consumers over the workers. It is also found that among the interviewees, the domains of opportunity, precarity and anxiety are all perceived and received differently by different groups of people when engaging on the GrabCar platform.