Insta-commerce leverages digital platforms to offer immediate goods and services through gig workers, who are exploited via wage auctions. Lacking employee benefits and bargaining power, these workers become a permanent underclass. Strong legislative frameworks, oversight, and consumer awareness are urgently needed to secure fair wages, protections, and accountability from platforms.
The rapid growth of Insta-commerce is shaping the current economic landscape.
It refers to business models that promise immediate access to goods and services, often through digital platforms.
The model depends on the gig economy, where workers are classified as independent contractors rather than employees. These workers, often called "partners" by the companies, don't receive traditional employee benefits or protections.
The gig economy has expanded rapidly with digital platforms acting as modern-day thekedaars (middlemen), connecting workers with consumers but extracting value while minimizing responsibility for workers' conditions.
Digital platforms exploit workers similarly to traditional labor markets
Digital platforms have automated and scaled the exploitation mechanisms found in traditional labor markets. In physical labor chowks (markets), workers compete for jobs through auctions where the lowest wage wins.
Digital platforms replicate the traditional system by creating an algorithm-driven race to the bottom in wages......
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