This search is limited by exclusive supply via these portals. Therefore, booksellers compete for few exclusive positions on portal sites. Increasingly, independent shopping sites provide price comparisons between a broader range of booksellers. The Internet book market has provided first movers with lower costs and scale-benefits on an early market. In building an online brand, first movers seem to take the bulk of the benefit.
Newcomers face a harder time to establish a prominent place in the Internet economy.
A way to achieve that prominence, is to engage in partnerships with key Internet services. So booksellers team up with Internet businesses, like providers or search engines. Agents will have limited function in a commodity product, such as books. The potential effects on competition however are devastating for competition. Intelligent agents will be able to maximize transparency in a market of a commodity product, and so destroy every competition.