2022.06.09 削减中间商的工作已经完成

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So Much for Cutting Out the Middleman
Instead of getting rid of intermediaries, the internet created entirely new ones.

By Kathryn Judge
A hologram pizza
Adam Maida / The Atlantic
JUNE 9, 2022
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About the author: Kathryn Judge is the Harvey J. Goldschmid Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and the author of Direct: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source.

When we order takeout from a neighborhood restaurant, we are less and less likely to call the restaurant directly. Instead, we might order through Uber Eats or DoorDash, which take a cut of the sale and charge us a delivery fee. When summer hits and we go online to find new swimsuits and stock up on sunscreen, we might go to Amazon, which now relies, for the majority of its retail sales, on independent vendors that use its e-commerce platform. Even when we try to buy directly from the manufacturer, internet-empowered middlemen still play a big role. The 2000s wave of direct-to-consumer companies, for example, ended up paying massive amounts to Facebook and others for the targeted ads they depended on to reach new customers.


This isn’t what was supposed to happen. The internet, people such as Bill Gates insisted, would be a disruptive force that shifted power into the hands of makers and consumers. In his 1995 book, The Road Ahead, the Microsoft co-founder predicted that the internet would become “the universal middleman,” and that “often the only humans involved in a transaction will be the actual buyer and seller.” In other words, why pay a middleman to help you find what you needed when you could find it yourself?

Derek Thompson: The booming, ethically dubious business of food delivery

The internet has swept away some intermediaries. The number of travel agents dwindled as Americans got used to booking their own flights, hotels, and rental cars online. But travel agents’ fate is the exception, not the rule. Far more common are the persistence of middlemen whom technology should have rendered obsolete and the rise of new types of middlemen, draining yet more money and power from creators and their customers.

Surprisingly, some long-established middlemen whose role seems comparable to travel agents have found ways to persist. Traditionally, buyers needed real-estate agents to help them identify available houses. Sellers relied on their knowledge of recent sales to know how to price their home. All of this information is now readily available online. Yet both buyers and sellers continue to use full-service real-estate agents and continue to pay very high fees—an average of about 5 percent of the value of the home sold. Because real estate—not stock—is the primary store of wealth for the typical family, the internet’s failure to render these expensive middlemen obsolete is a genuine loss for the American middle class.

Meanwhile, the internet has transformed some classic intermediary industries—most notably retail—in ways that empower a small number of supersize middlemen. More online shoppers start their search on Amazon than on any other website, including Google. Amazon, which started out as just a virtual version of the classic bookstore, has evolved into a middleman among middlemen; rather than set up their own e-commerce systems, smaller producers and resellers sell on Amazon—but doing so costs them. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Amazon’s cut of third-party sales increased from 19 percent in 2014 to 34 percent last year. Yet the number of sellers that use Amazon also continues to grow.

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DoorDash and Uber Eats, which dominate food delivery, show how the internet has contributed to new types of middlemen—disrupting direct connections rather than facilitating them. When I was growing up, when we wanted takeout, we called the local pizza place and its delivery person brought us our food. Today, many people order through one of a handful of apps, even though the high fees that those apps charge eat away at restaurants’ profitability. Economists attribute the power of these middlemen to the nature of what they do: Once they attract a critical mass of sellers, buyers follow, and vice versa. As more restaurants join DoorDash, for example, the growing range of options attracts a lot of hungry customers. Those patrons in turn persuade more restaurateurs that they have no choice but to sign up, and the cycle continues.

Read: People liked malls

Similar network effects are at play on Amazon’s marketplace and in the multiple listing service (MLS) databases—controlled by traditional real-estate agents—of homes for sale. Understanding these dynamics helps explain the high degree of concentration among online middlemen.

Another reason middlemen have thrived is that they have used their economic and political clout to contort the evolution of the markets where they operate. My research on middlemen in finance and beyond reveals a vicious cycle. Middlemen first rise to power by providing a valuable service, helping to facilitate the flow of goods from sellers to buyers or, in finance, the flow of money from savers to entrepreneurs. But all of the infrastructure, expertise, and relationships that middlemen develop to be good connectors also gives them outsize power in the marketplace and in legislative and regulatory chambers. Then, in the future, these intermediaries use that power to put their interests above those of the customers they serve.


Real-estate agents, for example, created the MLS to help sellers get their homes in front of a lot of buyers and to give buyers the ability to easily learn about potential homes that suit their needs. Yet, once inclusion in the MLS became essential to selling a home, traditional agents could use the threat of exclusion from the MLS as a way to penalize anyone who wanted to sell a home in a cheaper, more creative way. Real-estate agents have also used their expertise and deep pockets to successfully lobby for public policies that suppress competition—such as entrenching laws that prohibit banks from offering real-estate services. Far from challenging real-estate agents’ power, sites such as Zillow have the MLS as their hidden backbone.

For many middlemen, dominance just breeds more dominance. Amazon controls the most advanced and extensive fulfillment system in the United States. This allows Amazon to deliver goods quickly and efficiently, but Amazon also uses this network and the promise of seemingly free, fast delivery to entice customers to join Amazon Prime. Once customers pay the fee to join, however, they keep going back to Amazon again and again, because it feels more costly to go elsewhere. And the more customers looking out for Amazon Prime, the more sellers feel obliged to pay Amazon to store and ship their goods so they can earn that label, helping to explain and accentuate Amazon’s growing cut on third-party sales. DoorDash and Uber Eats offer similar subscription services, giving rise to similar dynamics. These three companies have also used their insights into how their markets are evolving to buy up competitors that could pose a future threat and to further expand the scope of their domain.


From the November 2019 issue: Jeff Bezos’s master plan

I and other critics of the middleman economy need to acknowledge that many intermediaries help consumers save time. As a working mom of two young girls, I don’t merely empathize with the many other time-pressed Americans who prioritize convenience; I regularly join their ranks. Forgoing the use of dominant middlemen may require waiting longer for a package to arrive, walking down the street to pick up dinner, or making a bunch of phone calls to arrange home showings. Such efforts can sometimes have hidden rewards, such as helping us cultivate more patience and foster a sense of connection, but many are just burdens.

Yet Gates and others rightly understood the value in cutting out the middleman; the convenience they provide may give way to self-dealing. The intervening decades have shown how the price we pay for the convenience they provide just keeps growing. For far too long, policy makers stood on the sidelines as these intermediaries grew in size and influence. Congress and regulators are starting to address the far-reaching power these middlemen have accrued, but the playing field continues to favor middlemen over manufacturers, restaurant owners, and home sellers, as well as their customers.

Kathryn Judge is the Harvey J. Goldschmid Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and the author of Direct: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source.




削减中间商的工作已经完成
互联网非但没有摆脱中间商，反而创造了全新的中间商。

凯瑟琳-贾奇报道
全息图披萨
亚当-迈达/《大西洋》杂志
6月9日，2022年
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关于作者。凯瑟琳-贾奇是哥伦比亚大学法学院哈维-J-戈德施密德教授，也是《直接：中间人经济的崛起和直达源头的力量》一书的作者。

当我们从附近的餐馆叫外卖时，我们越来越不可能直接给餐馆打电话。相反，我们可能通过Uber Eats或DoorDash订餐，它们从销售中抽成，并向我们收取配送费。当夏天来临，我们上网寻找新的泳衣和囤积防晒霜时，我们可能会去亚马逊，现在它的大部分零售额都依赖于使用其电子商务平台的独立供应商。即使我们试图直接从制造商那里购买，由互联网授权的中间商仍然扮演着重要角色。例如，2000年的一波直接面向消费者的公司，最终向Facebook和其他公司支付了巨额费用，以获得他们所依赖的定向广告，以接触新客户。


这并不是应该发生的事情。比尔-盖茨等人坚持认为，互联网将是一种颠覆性的力量，将权力转移到制造者和消费者手中。在他1995年出版的《未来之路》一书中，这位微软公司的联合创始人预言，互联网将成为 "通用的中间商"，而且 "通常参与交易的唯一人类将是实际的买方和卖方。" 换句话说，当你可以自己找到你需要的东西时，为什么要付钱给一个中间人来帮助你找到它？

德里克-汤普森：蓬勃发展的、在道德上可疑的食品配送业务

互联网已经扫除了一些中间商。随着美国人习惯于在网上预订自己的航班、酒店和租车，旅行社的数量逐渐减少。但旅行社的命运是例外，而不是常规。更为常见的是，那些本应被技术淘汰的中间商持续存在，以及新型中间商的崛起，从创造者和他们的客户那里榨取更多的金钱和权力。

令人惊讶的是，一些历史悠久的中间商，其作用似乎与旅行社相当，却找到了坚持下去的方法。传统上，买家需要房地产经纪人来帮助他们确定可用的房子。卖家依靠他们对近期销售的了解，知道如何给自己的房子定价。所有这些信息现在都可以在网上轻易获得。然而，买家和卖家都继续使用提供全面服务的房地产经纪人，并继续支付非常高的费用--平均约为所售房屋价值的5%。由于房地产--而不是股票--是典型家庭的主要财富储存，互联网未能使这些昂贵的中间商过时，是美国中产阶级的真正损失。

同时，互联网已经改变了一些经典的中介行业--最明显的是零售业--使少数超级大的中间商获得了权力。更多的网上购物者在亚马逊上开始他们的搜索，而不是在任何其他网站上，包括谷歌。亚马逊一开始只是传统书店的虚拟版本，现在已经演变成了中间商中的中间商；小型生产商和转售商没有建立自己的电子商务系统，而是在亚马逊上销售，但这样做要付出代价。根据地方自力更生研究所的数据，亚马逊在第三方销售中的分成从2014年的19%增加到去年的34%。然而，使用亚马逊的卖家数量也在持续增长。

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主导食品配送的DoorDash和Uber Eats表明，互联网如何促成了新型的中间商--破坏了直接联系，而不是促进它们。在我成长的过程中，当我们想吃外卖时，我们会给当地的比萨店打电话，由其送餐员给我们送来食物。今天，许多人通过少数几个应用程序之一订购，尽管这些应用程序收取的高额费用侵蚀了餐馆的利润。经济学家将这些中间商的力量归结为他们所做事情的性质。一旦他们吸引了足够数量的卖家，买家就会跟进，反之亦然。例如，随着越来越多的餐馆加入DoorDash，越来越多的选择吸引了大量饥饿的顾客。这些顾客反过来又说服了更多的餐馆老板，他们别无选择，只能签约，循环往复。

阅读。人们喜欢商场

类似的网络效应在亚马逊的市场上和由传统房地产经纪人控制的待售房屋的多重上市服务（MLS）数据库中也在发挥作用。了解这些动态有助于解释在线中间商的高度集中。

中间商蓬勃发展的另一个原因是，他们利用自己的经济和政治影响力，扭曲了他们所经营的市场的演变。我对金融业和其他领域的中间商的研究显示了一个恶性循环。中间人首先通过提供有价值的服务而获得权力，帮助促进商品从卖家到买家的流动，或者在金融领域，促进资金从储蓄者到企业家的流动。但是，中间人为了成为好的连接者而发展的所有基础设施、专业知识和关系，也使他们在市场上和立法及监管机构中拥有巨大的权力。然后，在未来，这些中间人利用这种权力，将他们的利益置于他们所服务的客户的利益之上。


例如，房地产经纪人创建了MLS，以帮助卖家将他们的房子呈现在许多买家面前，并让买家能够轻松了解适合他们需求的潜在房屋。然而，一旦加入MLS成为销售房屋的必要条件，传统的中介就可以利用排除在MLS之外的威胁，来惩罚那些想以更便宜、更有创意的方式销售房屋的人。房地产经纪人还利用他们的专业知识和雄厚的资金，成功地游说公共政策，压制竞争，如巩固禁止银行提供房地产服务的法律。Zillow等网站非但没有挑战房地产经纪人的权力，反而将MLS作为其隐藏的支柱。

对许多中间商来说，主导地位只会滋生更多的主导地位。亚马逊控制着美国最先进、最广泛的履约系统。这使亚马逊能够快速有效地交付货物，但亚马逊也利用这个网络和看似免费、快速交付的承诺来吸引客户加入亚马逊Prime。然而，一旦顾客支付了加入费用，他们就会一次又一次地回到亚马逊，因为去其他地方感觉成本更高。而且，越来越多的顾客关注亚马逊Prime，越来越多的卖家觉得有义务向亚马逊支付存储和运输货物的费用，这样他们就可以获得这个标签，有助于解释和强调亚马逊对第三方销售的日益削减。DoorDash和Uber Eats提供类似的订阅服务，产生了类似的动力。这三家公司还利用其对市场发展的洞察力，收购了可能对未来构成威胁的竞争对手，并进一步扩大其领域范围。


来自2019年11月号的报道。杰夫-贝佐斯的总计划

我和其他批评中间商经济的人需要承认，许多中间商帮助消费者节省时间。作为一个有两个年轻女孩的工作母亲，我不仅仅是同情其他许多时间紧迫的美国人，他们把方便放在首位；我经常加入他们的行列。放弃使用占主导地位的中间商可能需要等待更长的时间等待包裹到达，走到街上去买晚餐，或者打一堆电话来安排看房。这样的努力有时会有隐藏的回报，比如帮助我们培养更多的耐心和促进联系的感觉，但很多只是负担。

然而，盖茨和其他人正确地理解砍掉中间人的价值；他们提供的便利可能会让位于自我交易。在过去的几十年里，我们为他们提供的便利所付出的代价是如何不断增加的。长久以来，当这些中介机构的规模和影响力不断扩大时，政策制定者站在一旁。国会和监管机构正在开始处理这些中间商所积累的深远权力，但竞争环境仍然有利于中间商而不是制造商、餐馆老板和房屋销售商以及他们的客户。

凯瑟琳-贾奇是哥伦比亚大学法学院的哈维-J-戈德施密德教授，也是《直接：中间商经济的崛起和直达源头的力量》一书的作者。