Opinion | For the digital world, customer is truly king

The defining characteristic of the internet over the past half decade has been the growth of large technology platforms. In addition to giant retail and social media companies, we have seen the rise of a wide array of aggregation platforms on which we have come to depend for our day-to-day services—from urban mobility to food delivery and hotel accommodation. More recently, we have witnessed the consolidation of online activity around a few mammoth platforms, which has given rise to concerns about the structure of these business models with particular reference to their implications on competition.