Superplatform: A framework to analyse and regulate Google's online ad ecosystem

This paper introduces the concept of the superplatform to analyse and regulate Google’s online advertising ecosystem. As the operator of the world’s largest ad exchanges, Google often escapes regulatory oversight and scholarly scrutiny. The superplatform is conceptualised as an integrated process comprising a demarketised computational-industrial supply chain and a supermarketised dual-core exchange system. It operates through three main economisation modes – marketisation, barterisation, and demarketisation – and coordinates a network of platforms, including AdX, AdSense, Ad Manager, and Google Ads. The dual-core structure encompasses a direct exchange for Google-owned inventory and an open exchange with limited competition. Google simultaneously acts as market maker, buyer, seller, producer, publisher, and infrastructure provider. Advancing critical platform studies and regulatory frameworks for platform economies, the concept of superplatform serves as a simple theoretical tool to make sense of a complex stacked economisation process that shapes market dynamics and their disruption under corporate control.