Early researchers predicted the demise of traditional intermediaries as the opportunities provided for direct selling by the Internet grew. However, new intermediaries continue to emerge on the Internet, both pure-play and online versions of brick-and-mortar intermediaries. In this research, we examine sophistication and integration of intermediary functions in three online industries namely – travel, automobile and retail. Preliminary results show that while there may be a few intermediaries having extensive capabilities in certain specific functions, on an average, most possess no more than satisfactory capability in all or most of the intermediary functions. Furthermore, it appears that the retail industry is more sophisticated and/or integrated in intermediary functions than the other two industries in the study.
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