Talk:Disintermediation

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Contents 1 Disintermediation in Real Estate 2 Disintermediation in Travel 3 Original research 4 Re-intermediation in banking

The example of dell is repeated in the article 128.176.231.147 (talk) 12:58, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

I wasn't sure if there were applications of this word outside of E-commerce, so that's why I put the header thing in.

It's mainly just a stylistic thing to keep the articles uniform. - Hephaestos 05:29, 10 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Thanks! - Csurguine

Other apps are mentioned in the Paul Hawken book; The Next Economy

One of the interesting things about Dell is that more and more people are using resellers to purchase Dell equipment because (a) Dell's volume discounting is available to resellers but not to end users (so therefore resellers are often able to buy from Dell and resell at a price lower than Dell's list price and still make an acceptable margin) and (b) Dell's customer service center is apparently run by braindamaged rodents. Kelly Martin (talk) 21:10, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

What defines 'niche', by the way? At what point does something cease to be failed/niche and become developing? For example, groceries in the UK isn't viewed as a failure, because there was no high-profile boom and bust company like Webvan. Instead there was a slower development, focused on companies such as Tescos, whose own home delivery service is now claimed to be the largest in the world with an annual growth of 24%, albeit currently only with 2% of their total group sales of £37bn. So is this permanently going to be a niche, or is it really a developing market? Average Earthman 10:42, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I personally think 2% is still a niche. When it hits 20% or 25% (that is, enough to make a visible impact in the foot traffic in brick-and-mortar supermarkets) then it's time to take online grocery shopping seriously. What does everyone else think? --Coolcaesar 04:31, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 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 [1].

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)