Supply and demand matching on the internet

The internet has been one of the greatest supply-demand matchers in human history, in part because it makes mass communication so easy.

What’s interesting is how the internet can make some really unlikely connections. I’m not talking about an orange seller finding an orange buyer, but people from totally different industries, social spheres, even continents, making some mutually beneficial exchange.

A great example is retired British people teaching English to Indian students over Skype. It found use for an underutilised asset and found a market for it. Value was created for both sets of participants.

The internet is a fantastic distribution system for information, which doesn’t obey existing economics i.e. it’s just as cheap to send a bit down the road as it is to send it across the world.

What is needed are services to make the initial connections. To be digital information brokers between two disparate parties.