ABSTRACT
Network industries are not exempted from these dynamics. Substitution is possible in some marginal cases, as in letter mail in communications and taxis in transportation. However, platformization will be the most common form of disruption in the network industries. The assets produced by traditional players will always be relevant (fiber optic cables, roads, ports, planes, electricity generation plants) but they will increasingly be coordinated by digital platforms with their algorithms, as they can identify and exploit more powerful network effects: network effects on top of network industries. The more network industries are digitalized, the easier it is for platforms to take the role of coordinator of the digitalized assets, displacing traditional players from the role of coordinators of the system. This is the digitalization dilemma in the network industries, and regulation has certainly a role to play in the vertical relationship between platforms and traditional network industries.
