E-Business Models Paper

Running a profitable e-business involves accepting continual change and finding the correct business model is not always easy. Thanks to many of the Internet pioneers, corporations now have some history to analyze their desired approach. IBM analyzed over 700 companies that are currently active on the web and noticed that specific online business model patterns emerged (see table below). “Interestingly, while these groupings remain constant across geography, industry, company size or type of commerce, their distinction is marked by their primary focus and market scope” (IBM, p1).

The following is a list of these groupings and a brief description each:
1) Offline facilitator: promote their brands online, but do not take online orders in an effort to avoid potential channel conflicts,
2) Context provider: also called affinity groups or content aggregators, they are experts in a particular domain, are aligned with a specific value proposition, and might be based on s...