A Multi-level Perspective on Digital Platform Implementation and Impact: The Case of EasyTaxi in Colombia

Growth of digital platforms in developing countries has yet to see equivalent growth in research. This paper presents one of the first conceptualised analyses of platform implementation and impact. Using the “multi-level perspective”, it analyses a successful ride-hailing platform: EasyTaxi in Bogotá, Colombia. This was originally a niche innovation but has effected a socio-technical transition to a dominant position within Bogotá’s taxi regime. Speed of transition is explained in terms of tensions within that regime and from wider demographic change, combined with specific utility of the platform to drivers and passengers who faced a prior context of exploitation, mistrust and insecurity. Though the new regime is a hybrid of platform and non-platform features, its impacts can already be seen: datafication, formalisation, and shift in power away from old taxi operating companies and towards passengers and, in particular, towards the platform itself. Alongside case-specific insights, the paper demonstrates the utility of the multi-level perspective as a means to analyse the enactment of digital platforms.