Çevrimiçi Pazarda "Tüketici Üre-tüketim" ve Metalaştırma: Letgo'da Kullanıcı Deneyimleri

Abstract

Taking a particular interest in the commoditization of online users’ prosumption on Letgo consumer-consumer (C2C) marketplace application, this work inquires mechanisms that enable the commoditization of prosumptive activities of second hand buyers and sellers. Addingly, it seeks to pinpoint the underlying vector behind this process. To generate answers, the study draws on a literature that considers the notion of online prosumption with a cultural and political economy perspective respectively, qualitative interviews with 22 Letgo users and a walkthrough of Letgo application interface. It found out that second hand products do not constitute the sole element that is commoditized on Letgo digital marketplace. In fact, relevant to marketplace activity, users’ informational data is monetized by way of online advertising while user communication, that underpins second hand buying and selling, is commoditized through capital investments Letgo received from varying investors in the market. The work also concludes online user prosumption, that is employed in profit realization process, does not appear in a way that production and consumption come into being on an equal terms. Per contra, it finds expression in a way that is overwhelmingly consumptive- thus in the form of a “consumptive prosumption”.