The New Businesses Traveling the 'Fast Lane' on the Information Highway. One example is iShip which collects and compares shipping information extracted from UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc web sites.
Aggregators present both enormous opportunities and threats for existing businesses.
New Web-page extraction tools, context sensitive mediators, and agent technologies have greatly reduced the barriers to constructing aggregators. There are already interesting examples of first generation aggregators. Aggregators will soon emerge in industries where they were not formerly present and have major impacts. A model for understanding the aggregator's strategic interaction with the incumbent aggregatees will be presented. Different business models as possible aggregator entry points into an industry have been developed and their impact on the value chain described.