A Multi-dimensional Identification of the Connotation of Digital Capital: A Theoretical Perspective Based on Digital Labor

In the digital era, the integration of data as a production factor has transformed the multiplication process of capital. Capital invested in the development of computer and information technology products, which enhances digital labor’s ability to create surplus value, represents the first interpretation of digital capital. The second interpretation involves capital that amasses vast data resources and relies on digital laborers to process raw data into profit-generating outputs. Additionally, crowd-sourced labor, unpaid user labor, and emotional labor within the digital industry have emerged as new sources of surplus value, forming the third understanding of digital capital. The accumulation and expansion of digital capital have intensified. As social productivity reaches higher levels, digital capital is expected to shed its original social relational attributes, allowing the logic of digital capital to evolve into a new framework aligned with socialist production logic.