This Palgrave Pivot explores how communication technology such as the Internet has changed the nature of trade, focusing especially on economy-wide reductions in company size (granularity) and the role of retailers (disintermediation). By increasing access to comparative data, influencing conceptions of time, and reducing the number of intermediaries between creator and consumer, technological connectivity is changing the very definition of competition. In the new network economy, disintermediation and granularity are turning cooperative information gathering and sharing into a vital market institution.

1. The Technology: Has Digital Communication Technology Changed the Way Markets Function? Competition or Cooperation?.- 2. The Drivers: Connectivity, Data, and Attention.- 3. The Trends: Granularity, Behemoths, and Cooperation.- 4. The Independent Contractor and Entrepreneurship in Labor Markets.- 5. The On-Demand Economy and How We Live: Communication, Information, Media, and Entertainment.- 6. The Sharing Economy: Information Cascades, Network Effects, and Power Laws.- 7. The Private World of Sharing and Cooperation: Lines not Walls.- 8. The Internet and Regulation: Freedom Necessitates Oversight.- 9. The Conclusion: We Cooperate to Better Comprehend.