Digital platformization in construction: Micro-entrepreneurial empowerment or concentration of intermediation power?

Digital platforms increasingly mediate local service markets, but their implications for entrepreneurship remain contested. They can lower entry barriers for individuals and small ventures by reducing search, marketing, reputation, and payment frictions, while simultaneously concentrating control over visibility, matching, and transaction rules within a small number of intermediaries. This study examines digital platformization in the Australian construction services sector using a descriptive panel derived from Australian Business Number (ABN) registration and cancellation records for 2023–2025. Focusing on trades, repairs, and small-scale contracting, it compares overall construction-related business dynamics with a platform-adjacent subset identified through a transparent seed-list and lexical classification procedure. The analysis covers entry, exit, active-venture growth, spatial distribution, and intermediary concentration using Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) and concentration-share measures. Platform-adjacent micro-ventures grew faster than the sector overall and accounted for a rising share of new registrations, suggesting that platforms function as entry infrastructure for resource-constrained providers. However, these ventures also showed higher churn, while the intermediary segment became more concentrated around a small number of dominant platforms. The findings show that platformization does not simply expand entrepreneurship; it restructures it into a high-entry, high-churn form of micro-enterprise embedded in an increasingly concentrated intermediation regime. • Digital platforms expand micro-enterprise entry in construction services. • Platform-adjacent ventures grow faster but churn more. • Intermediation is concentrating around a few dominant platforms. • More entry does not necessarily mean more entrepreneurial autonomy. • Platformization reshapes construction entrepreneurship at two levels.