On Hubs and Intermediation


And, of course, there is the king of vertical hubs - VerticalNet, which operates over 40 online vertical communities spanning various industry sectors.

The recent popularity of vertical hubs is directly related to their promise of lowering transaction costs especially in fragmented markets where prices are difficult to compare. But establishing a successful vertical hub is not easy. It requires significant domain expertise and alliances.

Technology is also an important enabler. While the electronic catalog is at the heart of Ariba technology, other functional hubs have made use of online auctions such as Adauction.com that auctions premium online ad space to the professional media buyers. Yet others such as VerticalNet are selectively introducing the digital exchange model that is fueled by a bid-ask engine for real-time commodity trading and interactive negotiation. This is a space that Tradex is committed to occupy.

All in all, intermediation is well and alive in the world of e-commerce!

Disclaimer: The views in this article reflect those of the author only and not those of any organization for which the author works or provides consulting services.

The copyright of the article On Hubs and Intermediation in Electronic Commerce is owned by Nazan Fathy. Permission to republish On Hubs and Intermediation in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic