Intention economy

Key takeaways

Intention economy belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Intention economy to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Intention economy from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The intention economy is an approach to viewing markets and economies focusing on buyers as a scarce commodity. Customers' intention to buy, drives the production of goods to meet their specific needs. It is also the title of Doc Searls book: The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge published in May 2012.

Concept Doc Searls coined the term in an article for Linux Journal. He wrote: "The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that they come ready-made. You don't need advertising to make them." Despite the advancement of the internet, businesses are still seller oriented. Even successful businesses like Google still have the point of view of the sellers, with their revenue coming nearly all from advertising. Searls describes the current condition as a series of silos. The only option a buyer has is merely moving from silo to silo. Nothing has fundamentally changed. Some sites have similar characteristics of an intention economy. For example, flight booking services Priceline.com, which let users name their price for an airline ticket still functions like a "silo." In an intention economy a site like Priceline might serve as an intermediary with the airline coordinating new flight dates and times that correspond around the buyers intentions. Companies need to be able to respond to a customer's precise needs. "Mass customization, in a lot of areas it is no longer inherently necessary that I get the exact same thing as a million other people. A computer manufacturer can be geared for assembling a computer just for me, to my specifications. A travel agency can construct a travel plan particularly for me."

Examples Searls gives an example of intention economy scenario: "A car rental customer should be able to say to the car rental market, 'I'll be skiing in Park City from March 20–25. I want to rent a 4-wheel drive SUV. I belong to Avis Wizard, Budget FastBreak and Hertz 1 Club. I don't want to pay up front for gas or get any insurance. What can any of you companies do for me?' — and have the sellers compete for the buyer's business." Trendwatching.com describes two problems with intention economy sites. "...Most of these ‘information brokers’ focus on only one product/category. Many of them also work (too) closely with a limited set of suppliers. Sites that seem to act like intention economy sites are not. For example, Priceline which lets customers name their own price and then matches it with the (pre-set) minimum prices that airlines, hotels and rental car companies have provided Priceline.com with this space remains wide open for intention-brokers who can handle a variety of intentions per customer, and genuinely operate on behalf of those customers." Priceline ended its Name Your Own Price model for flights in 2016 and car rentals in 2018, and for hotels in 2020.

Trendwatching in 2007 listed examples of intention economy sites then online:

Igglo lets potential buyers bid on houses that aren't on the market (unclear if still doing so in 2025) Zillow lets home owners name their "Make Me Move" before putting their house on the market. Eventful allowed users to collectively persuade performers to come to their town (no longer doing it in 2025) SellaBand allowed users to collectively sponsor and help manage a band for a cut of the revenue (last done in 2014) Kleemi allowed members to create list of intentions that friends and vendors can; comment, review, or make offers on (no evidence of a functioning website since 2011) Infinite Buyer allows registered consumers to make their offer on seller listings (abandoned in 2019) Intently.co allows users to request any service anywhere. Current operational services:

Angi (formerly Angie's List) - founded in 1995, Angi is a US-based online service that allows people to openly put out projects for bid to local contractors.

Reactions With the emergence of Artificial general intelligence and its increasing adoption in consumer information spaces, some have expressed more pessimism about the intention economy, suggesting that it: "will test democratic norms by subjecting users to clandestine modes of subverting, redirecting, and intervening on commodified signals of intent."

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Intention economy

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Intention economy claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Intention economy before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Intention economy ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Intention economy

In research: Intention economy appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Intention economy in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Intention economy is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics E-commerce, Economic systems, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Intention economy outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Intention economy in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Intention economy means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Intention economy out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Intention economy in simple terms?

The intention economy is an approach to viewing markets and economies focusing on buyers as a scarce commodity. Customers' intention to buy, drives the production of goods to meet their specific needs.

Why does Intention economy matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Intention economy?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Intention economy.