Sure, the Internet caused the loss of some middleman jobs: think of the stockbroker who used to execute trades on the floor of an exchange or the travel agent who does nothing more than take your order. Social media as a whole, predicated on direct connections, has become the province of publicists and advertisers and other specialists whom stars and businesses hire to connect them with fans and customers. YouTube’s self-made celebrities show that cultural gatekeepers aren’t the only way to find an audience–but old-fashioned agents look to YouTube to scout out new talent for television and film, much the way literary agents have turned to the blogosphere in search of authors who will write the next bestseller. More than 103,000 agents spent an average of $354 per month advertising on Zillow and Trulia in the first quarter of 2015, a record amount for the recently merged companies. These middlemen no longer have an exclusive lock on listings, thanks to sites like Trulia and Zillow–but instead of pushing real estate agents aside, these sites have partnered with the agents by charging them to advertise. Ninety-one percent of all houses sold in the United States are still sold through a real estate agent. Or look at the world of real estate sales.

Far from killing the middleman, eBay has generated a thriving new breed. Many PowerSellers wouldn’t even be in business if it weren’t for eBay. We trust them more than we trust the amateur eBay seller because we understand that they won’t squander their hard-earned reputation by misrepresenting the quality of the goods they’re selling. PowerSellers aren’t hawking their own collectibles–they’re retailers and resellers of other people’s goods, and the preeminent among them enjoy over $150,000 in sales per month. Although they make up only 4% of all eBay sellers, half of all eBay sales flow through them. These PowerSellers have become the site’s most active and reputable users. But as the site evolved, middlemen emerged, first with handy stores like AuctionDrop and, eventually, with “PowerSellers” hanging their virtual shingles on the site. From its earliest days, anyone with a computer and Internet connection could post anything they wanted to sell on eBay-and find prospective buyers from all over the world. economy was made up of the efforts of middlemen at a time when middlemen were supposed to be drifting into irrelevance.Ĭonsider eBay. Send us feedback.Daniel Spulber, the Kellogg School economist who’s studied the matter more than anyone, calculated that back in 1999 middlemen contributed 25% to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States by 2010, the last year for which enough data was available, that had grown to 34%: more than a third of the U.S. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'middleman.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Julia Horowitz, CNN, 9 June 2022 If these were being offered on the secondary market, offers that exorbitant might be expected… but what gave fans sticker shock was that these were face value tickets, with no middleman jacking up the price.Ĭhris Willman, Variety, 20 July 2022 See More Jennifer Jolly, USA TODAY, 10 June 2022 Gensler said Wednesday that the agency is considering whether to add more competition at the middleman level to ensure retail investors are actually getting the best prices. and elsewhere in the West.īrett Forrest, WSJ, 16 June 2022 Outdoorsy and others like it typically deduct a 20% to 25% commission for finding renters and handling all that middleman stuff. Nikhilesh De, Fortune, 28 June 2022 In addition to direct sales, Russian equipment, as well as older Soviet weapons, are often bought and sold by middleman companies that are registered in the U.S.

Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 25 July 2022 Blockchains are all about removing middleman costs, right?

2022 And, at the height of the crowdfunding craze, a scheme known as human-capital contracts let investors give money to promising youths-usually through middleman companies such as Upstart-in exchange for a percentage of their future incomes. 2022 By embracing Web3 technology and building out smart contracts, there is no longer a need for this middleman. Recent Examples on the Web This concept of the middleman is what the modern-day music industry was built upon.

Middleman business