By now, most people are familiar with business-to-consumers web sites where a number of vendors offer their goods and/or services for sell through an automated, electronic catalog system. After all, that is the system used by the Internet's largest online consumer marketplaces.
With the emergence of the Internet as a new way of doing business came a flood of entrepreneurs with big ideas for the future. Many of these entrepreneurs decided to invest in the idea of the B2B Exchange. Essentially, these exchanges were simply web sites where many businesses came together to buy from and sell to one another.
An e-marketplace is a location on the Internet where companies can obtain or disseminate information, engage in transactions, or work together in some way. Most of the e-marketplaces provide two basis functions: 1) they allow companies to obtain new suppliers or buyers for company products, or