Disintermediation? Not so much

Common wisdom is that Internet disrupts industries by removing intermediaries, and putting people in direct contact.
Nothing could be further away from truth. Internet does in fact increase the number of intermediaries and business involved. But each business is doing something specific, in a very cost-effective way, and the transactions between each parties cost virtually nothing.

Marketplace lending is a perfect example. As one can see from the graphic below, it’s definitely not a simple ‘peer to peer’ mechanism…