The new geography of commerce and consume in digital platforms: the case of Meta Platforms Inc. and associated applications.

• Grant number: 21/13193-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2022
• End date: July 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: María Mónica Arroyo
• Grantee: Maria Fernanda Amorim Fossaluza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/08057-3 - Micro and small enterprises in electronic commerce: a theoretical and methodological approach in North American geography, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the use of digital platforms as means of realizing commercial transactions of goods and services, a phenomenon that has been gaining notoriety in Brazil with the development of the technical-scientific-informational environment and the large-scale use of the so-called web 2.0 applications. It is interesting, in particular, to study the case of the company Meta Platforms Inc. and its applications Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. We propose here the guiding hypothesis that the use of such applications builds networks of sellers and buyers that have particular characteristics, distinct from those built in traditional commerce and in electronic commerce (e-commerce). The research will consist in the analysis of these mediated by information and communication technologies networks, which moves material and immaterial flows in territory. We will work with secondary data (scientific and specialized magazines, institutional documents and journalistic materials) and primary data (interviews and applications monitoring, through virtual field methodologies). With this, we hope to contribute with the discussion of the updating technical-scientific-informational environment in Brazil, through the use of social networks for the commercialization of goods and services (recently called Social commerce or S-commerce). (AU)