dE-intermediation
As the different worlds of markets, systems and participants become more complex, the need for intermediaries between them increases. These intermediaries should be seen as connectors, and we should now be substituting the idea of intermediation for that of connection.
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The idea of intermediation that is founded on maintaining a dominant position with no benefit to the chain of value will disappear. New ways of intermediation will appear and flourish, offering higher value at a more appropriate cost.
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Intermediation has not been a problem in itself, it has simply emphasised the difference between its cost and the value it offers.
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Much intermediation has based the cost of its supposed value on a context of informational asymmetry. As soon as the internet makes this asymmetrical information symmetrical, it becomes more difficult to sustain intermediation costs that don’t correspond with its value.
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There are many words to define the revolution that the internet is causing in so many fields, but if we had to choose a single term it would undoubtedly be de-intermediation.
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The internet allows the relationship between the producer and the consumer to return to how it used to be before the evolution of an industrial society caused it to disappear. The distance that grew between them has produced many intermediaries that will now become obsolete.
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To what point are we not substituting physical intermediation for digital without truly reducing the distance between the product and the consumer? One example is buying music directly from the musician while Apple takes a commission for every MP3 it sells that is comparable to what FNAC makes from selling CDs.
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After more than fifteen years of popular internet use, there are still big opportunities for re-intermediation that will come from radically different dynamics than existing ones, which will only prosper if they have the potential user as the main beneficiary.
From our book: 30 ideas for 2030
