- On the Internet, B2B (business-to-business), also known as e-biz, is the exchange of products, services, or information between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers. Although early interest centered on the growth of retailing on the Internet (sometimes called e-tailing), forecasts are that B2B revenue will far exceed business-to-consumers (B2C) revenue in the near future. According to studies published in early 2000, the money volume of B2B exceeds that of e-tailing by 10 to 1. Over the next five years, B2B is expected to have a compound annual growth of 41%. The Gartner Group estimates B2B revenue worldwide to be $7.29 trillion dollars by 2004. In early 2000, the volume of investment in B2B by venture capitalists was reported to be accelerating sharply although profitable B2B sites were not yet easy to find.

B2B Web sites can be sorted into:

• Company Web sites, since the target audience for many company Web sites is other companies and their employees. Company sites can be thought of as round-the-clock mini-trade exhibits. Sometimes a company Web site serves as the entrance to an exclusive extranet available only to customers or registered site users. Some company Web sites sell directly from the site, effectively e-tailing to other businesses.
• Product supply and procurement exchanges, where a company purchasing agent can shop for supplies from vendors, request proposals, and, in some cases, bid to make a purchase at a desired price. Sometimes referred to as e-procurement sites, some serve a range of industries and others focus on a niche market.
• Specialized or vertical industry portals which provide a "subWeb" of information, product listings, discussion groups, and other features. These vertical portal sites have a broader purpose than the procurement sites (although they may also support buying and selling).
• Brokering sites that act as an intermediary between someone wanting a product or service and potential providers. Equipment leasing is an example.
• Information sites (sometimes known as infomediary), which provide information about a particular industry for its companies and their employees. These include specialized search sites and trade and industry standards organization sites.

Many B2B sites may seem to fall into more than one of these groups. Models for B2B sites are still evolving.

Another type of B2B enterprise is software for building B2B Web sites, including site building tools and templates, Database, and methodologies as well as transaction software.

B2B is e-commerce between businesses. An earlier and much more limited kind of online B2B prior to the Internet was Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which is still widely used.

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Business b2b

Despite the slowing economy, worldwide B2B Internet commerce is on pace to total $8.5 trillion in 2005, says Gartner Inc., the worldwide technology research and services firm. In fact, while B2B Inter net commerce is poised for strong growth, the long-term forecast has been impacted by the economic downturn, especially in the United States.

Business-to-business (B2B) is a term commonly used to describe commerce transactions between businesses, as opposed to those between businesses and other groups, such as business and individual consumers (B2C) or business and government (B2G).

B2B is also commonly used as an adjective to describe any activity, be it B2B Marketing, sales, or e-commerece, that occurs between businesses and other businesses rather than between businesses and consumers. Similar to B2B, B2G is often meant to refer to B2G Marketing.

The volume of B2B transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving sub component or raw materials but only one B2C transaction, because the sale of the finished product to the end customer is only a single transaction.

An example of a B2B transaction is an automobile manufacturer buying tires for its vehicles. The additional purchases of glass for the windows, paint, and steel would all be additional B2B transactions. The final transaction, a finished vehicle being sold to the consumer, would be considered a (B2C) transaction.

Beginning in November through December 1999 and into January and February 2000 there were a lot of newspaper and magazine reports, offline and online about B2B being the new focus of e-business and how this area would grow very fast.

We can find many newspaper articles about B2B issues and many of them include projections as to how big the market will grow - which may not be meaningful since since whether it is $5 trillion or $7 trillion - it's still a lot of money

In the following space, you will find separate articles on B2B at three separate times from E-commerce Times. Each story has a different perspective on B2B. Why?
WTGR

"The Stamford, Connecticut-based GartnerGroup sees the online B2B market reaching seven percent of a predicted $105 trillion in total global sales transactions.... The study reports that companies who develop B2B marketplaces -- so-called "e-market makers" -- will be a key
driving force for B2B e-commerce."

"A nationwide poll of U.S. industrial firms shows that most are not engaging in extensive business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, according to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). .. The study echoed a recent report from Deloitte and Touche showing that 70 percent of U.S. retailers lack a cohesive e-commerce strategy."

"No one questions the importance of B2B e-commerce, yet relatively few manufacturers are participating in it," said NAM president Jerry Jasinowski.

Jasinowski added
"our survey shows that most manufacturing companies are still at a rather basic level when it comes to integrating the Web into their corporate business activities. While 80 percent claim they have a Web site, the vast majority offer only an information storefront."

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