The internet enables Aggregators to shift the chokepoint in the value chain from supply to demand. The monopolies of the 20th centuries - U.S. Steel, Standard Oil, American Tobacco - exerted power through their control of supply. The largest companies in the 21st century are winning by first controlling demand, and using the strength and scale of... See more

Aggregators can leverage their demand ownership, data advantage, and superior customer experiences to capture more of the profits in their value chain.

Ben Thompson described this phenomenon in his signature aggregation theory. Pre-internet, you captured profits by controlling supply. Now, post-internet, you capture profits by aggregating demand.

The second fundamental truth of data business models is this: whoever controls the data, captures the value. Intermediaries get squeezed.  A common failure mode is to build a business on top of somebody else’s data. If you depend on a single upstream source for your data inputs, they can simply raise prices until they capture all of the economics... See more