In the Internet age, the influence of consumers has increased, and the view that “power has realized the shift from enterprises to consumers” has been agreed by most scholars. However, some studies have raised doubts, believing that the increase of consumer power has not really been realized.

In this regard, this paper systematically summarizes the sources of consumer empowerment in the Internet age, which are mainly reflected in the following five aspects. First, under the Internet environment, the information distribution structure has been reshaped. Both the amount of information and the richness of information obtained by consumers have been greatly enhanced, and the disadvantages of consumer information have been changed. Second, consumers can effectively unite through online platforms, exit or voice for unified action, and strengthen market sanctions against certain enterprises. Third, consumers’ knowledge, awareness and channels for exercising power have been greatly improved, and their ability to exercise power has been enhanced. Fourth, network technology brings convenient logistics and low-cost communication between consumers and enterprises, so as to achieve better matching between products or services and consumer needs. Fifth, in the fierce competition environment, in order to improve consumer satisfaction, some enterprises take the strategy to give consumers some power, so that their related activities are affected by consumers, thus promoting consumers to increase power. Then, this paper dialectically analyzes the dilemma of the above five sources of empowerment.

Then, combing and reviewing the relevant empirical research, this paper puts forward the existing criteria of consumer empowerment, which includes four major types, namely, changes in consumer behavior, product relative prices, consumer perceived empowerment and specific power dimension. There are two findings: First, the conclusions about whether consumers increase their power are not consistent in the empirical study; Second, there are some limitations in the existing criteria of consumer empowerment, which needs to be further optimized. Furthermore, this paper reveals the reasons for the contradictory views on “whether consumers increase power or not”, that is, the vague definition of the concept of power, and the differences in the verification methods of consumer empowerment.

On this basis, this paper draws the main conclusions: First, the power of consumers has increased than before, but in the game with enterprises, the shift of power to consumers has not been realized. Second, as the power of platform enterprises grows, the differences among network members are amplified by technology effects, leading to further differentiation of consumer groups. Finally, further research directions are proposed.