The Digital Era 2

3 New Intermediaries: Extra-territorial Platforms

This chapter examines the factors that led to the advent of the very powerful intermediation services that web platforms provide. Imagined in America some twenty years ago by companies whose services are now used all over the world, these services overturn a large number of traditions and habits. The new intermediaries threaten professions that were thought to be firmly established: advertising, newspapers, taxis, hotels, etc. The author explains that this is a paradigm shift with profound and lasting consequences. He describes the impact on markets, on competition and even on the administrative and political society that, he says, is not prepared to manage the inevitable transition towards algorithmic intermediation. These powerful companies continuously observe economic agents, consumers and the territory of our cities and countryside. Those that hold the upper hand are mainly American and Chinese; their expertise constitutes a considerable competitive advantage, which explains why our populations gladly adhere to the multiple amenities they deliver.

This text is based on a solid knowledge of the methods and processes associated with digital platforms. It analyzes the disruption of trade that plays in favor of web operators, without deviation: well exploited by algorithms, the multiple and precise data that these platforms hold on the real world overthrows the previous state. Social balances are also upset by the intervention ...