In our current digital age access is everything. The internet has provided us with the expectation that information can now be within reach at a moment's notice, and this expectation is slowly creeping into aspects of our world outside of the purely digital. examples include increasingly sophisticated delivery and convenience services, such as Uber or Favor, but are perhaps most profound in companies that operate as purveyors of the most crucial aspects of our lives, such as Facebook for our social needs, and Amazon for our consumptive impulses. This trend toward centralized mega-service providers optimizing our lives represents a fundamental shift in the way that we interact with the world around us. The pace at which we expect feedback has shifted from quick to instantaneous and the companies that are able to successfully capture our attention are the ones that have thrived. Kevin Kelly, in his book, “The Inevitable” claims that this phenomenon is a result of a shift away from the object-focused philosophy of ownership towards a preference for access. In our past, ownership has always trumped temporary use, because the consumer had limited options to lease an object or service based on their proximity to a service provider. This has changed however with globalization making the prospect of access over ownership a preferable relationship for the consumer.

Widespread demand for access over ownership has caused the rapid growth of industries that cater to this impulse and has propelled these digital companies to massive overnight success. This is due to the relatively low barrier of entry posed by connecting users to experiences rather than providing those experiences. Online service brokers' only relevant commodity is the attention of their users, everything else is provided by its vendors, which, in some cases are the same as its users. This business model works so well because it is essentially the same model as the internet itself, offering utility through connection, which in the current era is a business model all its own.