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B2B e-Marketplaces

By Marija Popović

Published by European Commission’s
Electronic Commerce Team
(Information Society Directorate General)

Introduction

Over the past few years, B2B e-marketplaces have captured the attention of journalists, experts and businessmen. The e-marketplaces model has been examined under a whole range of different names, such as Net Markets, e-Hubs, Fat/Thin Butterflies. That, together with the fact that different authors had generally rather diverse views about their supposed structure and the functions they had been founded to perform, brought a lot of confusion between business practitioners.

The aim of this report is to clear out as much as possible the confusion caused by the wide use of diverse, still unfamiliar, and sometimes even contradictory terms, as well as to show the state of the e-marketplace development and the benefits and costs that a company may reasonably expect if it forms or joins one or more of them.  The report is based on a variety of case studies representing diverse e-marketplace business models, their evolution and the way they are influencing the traditional business environment.

E-marketplaces are defined as fora that leverage the Internet to facilitate commerce among businesses. The definition is rather broad, comprising two deployments.

One is the centralized model that generally supports many-to-many processes. The best example here might be an auction (or reverse auction). The model is widely present within industry segments where a huge number of buyers and sellers has a common interest to gather within one single meeting place, in order to conduct business more efficiently. 

The second model extends behind what is called “Napsterisation of the supply chain”. The model is based on the peer-to-peer technology and therefore does not  require a centralized server. Each peer (partner) operates independently and in an open manner. The best example here is probably an “enterprise collaboration” software. Files are interchanged between partners on a push and pull basis – when needed, and no middle service is necessary to facilitate the flow of documents.

The report basically describes the markets that those two e-marketplaces models are targeting, the different business models they rely on and their sources of revenue, as well as the current trends in the e-marketplaces development in general.

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