From the street market to the online market. Comparative analysis of five applications for the sale of food in Mexico

Abstract

The social distancing and the confinement derived from the pandemic context has deepened the use and development of applications to continue relevant activities such as the purchase and sale of agricultural products.

Therefore, this work aims to analyze two commercial applications (Smattcom and Jüsto) and three of government origin (Mercados, Produce and Padrón de productores) developed for the acquisition of food through the Internet in Mexico, in order to identify their operational characteristics, its economic implications for producers and the social perception of its usefulness.

The Political Economy of Communication is used as a theory because it allows us to explain the economic function of applications and how they help or subdue Mexican agricultural producers. Hence the importance of comparative analysis as a methodology to identify its challenges and benefits.

Among the results, it stands out that commercial applications are installed as intermediaries in the production cycle that is digitized; although they imply the collection in kind or monetary to the producers to commercialize their products, they accept because the number of downloads increases or maintains their possibilities of sale during pandemic.