By Micah Jonah
January 20, 2026
In a compelling new episode of the Reuters Econ World podcast, host Carmel Crimmins and expert guests unpack the story of how the internet revolution once hailed as the great equalizer ended up concentrating enormous wealth in the hands of middlemen and dominant tech platforms. The discussion sheds light on the economic and competitive dynamics that allowed big intermediaries to capture vast profits, even as the digital age promised broader opportunity.
The episode explains that instead of decentralizing power, enabling fair distribution of economic gains across users and innovators, the internet’s infrastructure and market design often favours a few dominant players from search engines and social platforms to marketplaces and ad networks. These middlemen now wield outsize influence over markets and monetary flows, prompting fresh debate on competition policy, platform regulation, and the future of digital innovation.
Listeners and policymakers alike are urged to rethink how digital economies are structured to ensure greater fairness, competition, and value creation for all participants, not just intermediaries.
