Talk:Disintermediation/Archives/2012

Disintermediation in Real Estate
One example of the growth of the phenomena of disintermediation is the rise of "Flat Fee," "Fixed Fee" and "Reduced Commission" real estate sales transactions. A Wikipedia article on this is evolving at Flat fee MLS. Furthermore, for anyone researching this subject, there is a non-commercial web directory of licensed real estate agencies in various U.S.states at the link.

Disintermediation in Travel
It seems that the travel industry (Airlines in particular) have been in the process of disintermediation. Going away from "travel agents" and even online stores like expedia.com to selling their own tickets directly to customers. Eticketing may also be part of this change. I don't know enough to write an article on it yet, but just an idea.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.168.77.173 (talk) 23:07, 5 February 2007 (UTC).

For anyone interested in improving Wikipedia generally, there is also a discussion going on as to whether or not it is approprate to link to such a web directory from the mainpage of a Wikipedia article over at Talk:Flat fee MLS. Please feel free to weigh in if you have an informed view and do not believe yourself to have a conflict of interest on the subject. N2e 17:27, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Original research
This article strikes me as needing some serious scrutiny. Regrettably, I am not qualified to provide it, but my concerns focus on the "Impact of Internet-related disintermediation upon various industries" section. This is unsupported by any references to (preferably) academic or otherwise qualified literature, and makes some almost amusing claims regarding the impact of the Internet on the dog food market! Now perhaps dog-food has attempted and failed to disintermediate (did selling direct to dogs not work out, perhaps because on the Internet everyone assumes you're a human?), but as it stands the article is asserting some very flimsy claims. Groceries, on the other hand - the meaning of this is unclear to me, as customers have bought direct from grocers for ever and a day, so how are they now "niche"? Other sections have similar problems where they assert that dis/re-intermediation has occurred in various companies as the "best" example of such. This is original research as it stands, and I have thusly tagged the article. Splash - tk 17:32, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Dog food over the Internet didn't work very well. In the U.S., dog food is traditionally sold in huge bags that often weigh 30 pounds or more.  Under the traditional model, consumers bore the "last mile" cost by driving to pet superstores (e.g. PetSmart) and carrying home the bags in the trunks of their vehicles.  Pets.com and its competitors tried to disintermediate PetSmart and the like, but discovered the hard way that mailing dog food by UPS or FedEx was very expensive.
 * Traditionally, the supplies for supermarkets in North America went from producers to wholesalers like McLane and SuperValu, and from there to retail supermarket chains like Kroger and Safeway.  Peapod tried to add a direct-to-consumer option but their model made no sense because their pickup-from-supermarket model added yet another layer of overhead on top of the existing three layers of producer, wholesaler, and retailer.  Webvan tried to disintermediate the wholesaler and retailer by moving groceries directly from producers to consumers through its own proprietary distribution network but failed because groceries are perishable and difficult to distribute efficiently in small amounts.  Now Safeway Inc. has Safeway.com but runs it only as a niche business in certain markets to cater to the very small number of people who really loved Webvan---elderly retirees, extremely busy executives who can afford to have a maid at home to meet the delivery person, and homemakers with too many kids.  Safeway.com isn't so much about making outrageous amounts of money (as Webvan was) as it is about expanding brand loyalty and goodwill, and preventing another Webvan from ever popping up again.
 * You are right that the article needs sources, though. When I have the time I will go poke around Infotrac or ProQuest and see what comes up. --Coolcaesar 07:47, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Re-intermediation in banking
In banking, re-mediation also means taking back to balance sheet the loans that were removed from there via securitisation.ML-Est (talk) 10:07, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Other cases of Internet re-intermediation (or neo-intermediation?)
It seems to me that there is a growing number of companies that are inserting themselves between consumers and vendors in new ways, often without collecting fees from consumers and providing them some value-added benefit in return for effectively giving up their privacy. These include Google (search, email, apps, Grand Central) and Fonolo (phone calls to corporate IVR systems). Lippard (talk) 23:21, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Country specific gobbledegook:
What does this nonsense mean:


 * Internet transparency is letting home buyers view Residential and Commercial MLS, FSBO listings on their own.

HughesJohn (talk) 15:56, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

GBTV
What is 'GBTV' doing at the top of the See Also? I think it's a broken link to Wiktionary? I dunno. I'm removing it and someone who knows the subject matter can bring it back and hook it up if they want. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.124.151.244 (talk) 00:49, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

Distribution and Shipping Costs as a Factor in Disintermediation
This article needs coverage of distribution and shipping costs and their role in disintermediation. Sears, Roebuck for instance became a successful mail-order business in large part because of the U.S. Post Office subsidizing rural mail service. Shipping consumer goods by truck rather than rail allowed large retailers to bypass distribution companies. An so on. Jdbickner (talk) 16:44, 21 October 2012 (UTC)