Social protection, labour regulation and market creation: welfare capitalism’s institutional embeddedness of platform work and services in Hong Kong

Informed by theories of embeddedness and the welfare state’s threefold functions, this study examined how Hong Kong’s welfare capitalism, including residual social protection, liberal labour market institutions, and policy-led market demands, shapes the landscape of platform work and services in terms of food delivery and paid care. It also investigated how platform workers navigated these systems and precarity. Through documentary analysis and in-depth interviews, this study reveals the institutional embeddedness of platform work. First, the absence of unemployment benefits channelled some workers towards platform work, but they were ineligible to claim welfare and injury compensation due to their work precarity. Second, workers’ disentitled labour protection was associated with the government’s light-touch approach to false self-employment, resulting in individualized responsibilities and risks, lowering platforms’ labour costs. Finally, the government’s care marketization and public health policies crafted the platform market by boosting the demands for private care and food delivery services. This article contributes to existing literature by explaining the welfare state’s roles in embedding platform work’s sociolegal basis, workers’ marginalized status, and platforms’ sociotechnical power. It also adds empirical value by demonstrating how platform work is embedded in Asian welfare institutions.