Marc Steinberg, Rahul Mukherjee, Aswin Punathambekar
Tracing global shifts in ownership and conglomeration in the media and technology sectors, this introduction analyzes the emergence of the 'megacorp' and 'super app' as distinct forms and sites of media power. With a focus on Asia, we argue that the pairing of megacorps and super apps is driving the emergence of powerful digital companies that shape social, cultural, and political dynamics worldwide. Through analyses of companies including Reliance, SoftBank, Tencent, Alibaba, and Transsion, this special issue calls for a renewed engagement with theories of monopoly capital via the megacorp, and accounts of consumer and citizen experiences of this monopoly via a quotidian touch point, the super app...
November 2022: Media, Culture, and Society