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August 3, 2005
The Middleman is Dead...Not
I remember people saying with great sincerity that the Internet would connect buyers and sellers directly and cut out the middleman (i.e., retailers). Well, apart from ebay and a few wholesale .coms, this couldn't be further from the truth.
In fact, a whole new breed of middlemen has sprung up because of the Internet. PayPal, ebay clearing-houses, and search engines are all examples of new businesses playing the middleman role...and making money at it.
ExtremeTech has an interesting little article about another Internet middleman whose business is booming:
Commmunications clearinghouse NeuStar Inc. reported its first public quarter of revenues, with a roadmap to 36 percent revenue growth for the rest of the year.The reason? NeuStar is responsible for managing all telephone portability within the U.S., transferring numbers from one carrier to the next. The company also manages the Common Short Codes governing the SMS service, as well as the directories for the .us and .biz Internet domains.
Ah, yes, the middleman is definitely dead. Long live the middleman!
Posted by Craig in Industry
and Internet