Overview of B2B Portals
B2B portals are information portals for busi- nesses. They usually include lists of products offered by each seller, lists of potential buyers and what they want to buy, and other industry or gen- eral information. Buyers then visit sellers’ sites to conduct their transactions. The portal may receive a commission for referrals, or derive revenue from advertisements. Thus, information portals some- times have a difficult time generating sufficient revenues. Because of this, many information por- tals are beginning to offer additional services that support trading, such as escrow and shipments for a fee.
Like exchanges, information portals may be horizontal (e.g., Alibaba.com, described in the opening case), offering a wide range of informa- tion about different industries. Alternatively, they may be vertical, focusing on a single industry or industry segment. Vertical portals often are referred to as vortals. Portals can be limited to directory services, as will be described later in this chapter. Let us look at the various types of corporate portals first.
reference :
Efraim Turban, David King, Jae Kyu Lee, Ting-Peng Liang, Deborrah C. Turban (2015), Electronic Commerce A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective
