How Variations in Institutional Structures by Country Differentiate the Power of Social Network Platforms: The Case of TikTok

In this article, I epitomize arguments on the essence and dynamic nature of economic power in Original Institutional Economics. Following these arguments, I explicate how a major category of platform corporations—social network platforms (SNPs)—gain their power in a global sense. Since power stems from institutional structures and is also subject to countervailing power, which varies across countries, the same can be said for the power of SNPs. To illustrate this, I examine the case of TikTok and argue that although SNPs have powerful algorithms to boost the network effect by disseminating specific types of influential media/educational contents to habituate the social masses in pursuit of their pecuniary/predatory interests, specific manifestations and sustainability of their power are actually differentiated by the political and economic institutions in different countries. To conclude, I argue that although challenging, effective policies and coordination between governments are necessary to mitigate the possible negative influences exerted by these SNPs