Not necessaarily. A platform can provide value and make a profit. Consider Amazon A2Z Marketplace sellers, who do get to know their buyers. But customers prefer

Not necessaarily. A platform can provide value and make a profit. Consider Amazon A2Z Marketplace sellers, who do get to know their buyers. But customers prefer the experience on A2Z over the sellers own website. See also Android (Google Play Store), where app builders are able to get to know their users (subject to some possibly controversial platform constraints). Of course one can always do better for oneself by intermediating and rent-seeking on a platform.