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Capital accumulation and work in China’s internet content industry: Struggling in the bubble

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  • Bingqing Xia

Abstract

Since 2015, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (the so-called BAT) have constructed an empire in the Chinese Internet content industry via mergers and acquisitions. However, little is known about how professional Internet workers are experiencing this process of accumulation and consolidation. This article focuses on how social relations are reconfigured and subsumed in the capital accumulation process in the realm of the Internet content industry, using the Chinese case. It argues that fresh graduates are subsumed into the accumulation process as immaterial resources in the circulation of capital. It also offers a general critique of the capital accumulation process, as it shifts risks and costs of failure on to independent start-ups entering the industry. JEL Codes: P34, O3, Z1

Suggested Citation

  • Bingqing Xia, 2018. "Capital accumulation and work in China’s internet content industry: Struggling in the bubble," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 29(4), pages 501-520, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:29:y:2018:i:4:p:501-520
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304618810987
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sundararajan, Arun, 2016. "The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262034573, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bingqing Xia, 2019. "Precarious labour in waiting: Internships in the Chinese Internet industries," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(3), pages 382-399, September.
    2. Victor Wong & Tat Chor Au-Yeung, 2019. "Autonomous precarity or precarious autonomy? Dilemmas of young workers in Hong Kong," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(2), pages 241-261, June.
    3. Mondli Hlatshwayo, 2020. "Workers’ education under conditions of precariousness: Re-imagining workers’ education," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 31(1), pages 96-113, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    BAT; capital accumulation; Chinese Internet; start-ups; workers’ experiences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P34 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Finance
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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