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The process by which producers and
consumers are brought closer together, making middlemen redundant. This ugly
word, borrowed from the banking world, is especially relevant to internet
technologies which allow their users direct access to information that might
otherwise require a mediator. Examples include medical and legal websites,
which may bypass the need for real doctors and lawyers or at least change
the relationship with them.
Any business model that relies upon
disintermediation ignores the fact that most of the successful internet
companies rather than disintermediators. Amazon and ebay, for
example, bring buyers and sellers together; they are middlemen, albeit of a
sophisticated kind. |
