Many governments and firms do believe that technology can supplant governance and human responsibility. This belief poses the question of who will really benefit from smart cities. The work explores this fundamental question through the study of digital media platforms. The ultimate goal is to understand the link between e-governance and smart city initiatives in 13 cases of study by testing whether these projects are explicitly for citizens. The work aims to show that e-platforms represent the use of information and communication technologies with the aim of encouraging citizen participation in decision-making processes, improving information and service delivery, reinforcing transparency, accountability, as well as credibility. Thirteen digital media platforms will be surveyed, mostly in cities across countries. These e-platforms raise implementation challenges for both firms and policy makers, and new research opportunities for scientist to build up new research and to experiment with the aim to make the benefits for citizens wider and the participatory dimension stronger.