Does Playlabor Create Value?From the Perspective of Platform Users

“Playlabor” is a kind of digital labor that produces data commodities in the form of “production and consumption” under the domination of platform capital. It differs from traditional labor and other types of digital labor in that it highlights the entertainment nature of “play”; It differs from traditional leisure activities in that it stresses the productive nature of “labor”. Based on the different leisure motivations of platform users, “playlabor” can be divided into three types: leisure participation, exploration out of interest and professional interaction. These three types of “playlabor” can create three types of data products: “user awareness data” “exploratory data”, and “professional data” respectively. Like the commodities created by general labor, data products created by the “playlabor” of platform users also have value attributes. In the process of value creation, users are included in the logic of capital accumulation by platform capital, which promotes the value proliferation of platform capital and reflects the productive characteristics of “playlabor” and even platform capital.