Does electronic commerce as a new distribution channel cause disintermediation or reintermediation or both‪?‬

“Electronic commerce is an emerging concept that describes the process of buying and selling
or exchanging of products, services, and information via computer networks including
Internet.”(Turban, Lee, King and Chung, 2000). Electronic commerce, or short e-commerce,
promised many benefits and golden opportunities often described by terms like business-tobusiness
(B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C). Those terms are now often used in
commercials and advertisements. After only a short while new terminology was invented to
describe the new opportunities of e-commerce. The old terms lost their impressiveness much
too fast. Venture capital was readily available to finance business models described by peer-to
peer (P2P) and consumer-to-business (C2B). The online world but also their financial partners
found themselves in the middle of hype.
One of the great effects predicted was an effect named disintermediation. This term
describes according to Chaffey, Mayer, Johnston and Ellis-Chadwick (2000) the removal of
intermediaries. The former linkages between customers and companies like brokers or
distributors are replaced by the electronic channel. The picture some dot.com entrepreneurs
painted was one of a world without travel agencies, toyshops, electronic retailers and other
intermediaries.
Disintermediation caused some mid-sized channe l relationship earthquakes after a
rebellion from the intermediaries. Resellers of the Apple's I-Mac gave Steve Jobs at a
presentation in Paris, Europe a hard stand. Mr. Case was there to inform retailers about
Appel's newest PC model. His announcement, that the I-Mac will be exclusively available via
the Internet for an introduction period of four weeks, created whistle blowing and tumults
among the resellers. The upset intermediaries feared that this four weeks were just a try out
for their uncertain future (Stein, 2000). It comes at no surprise that intermediaries rebelled as
companies tried to shortcut them with the help of electronic commerce. Another example of
disintermediation is Steven King, who tried to sell a new book via the Internet. He put the first
chapters online for free and would only write further chapters if most people would pay him.
The project called 'The Plant" ended not successfully. Stephen King discontinued his trial
because the percentage of paying customers dropped with every chapter (Der Spiegel, 2000). [...]