Which parties are involved in e-commerce?
Business opportunities for startups and existing companies using the Internet are often referred to as B2C or B2B. As well as these terms, you may also often see the C2C and C2B.
Business-to-consumer (B2C) refers to commercial transactions are between an organisation and consumers (This is sell-side e-commerce).
Business-to-business (B2B) Commercial transactions are between an organisation and other organisations such as business customers, distributors and suppliers (This is buy-side e-commerce).
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) where consumers transact directly with consumers. Note though that this is still facilitated by a business intermediary. In the UK, Friends ReUnited (www.friendsreunited.co.uk ) has gained subscription from millions of subscribers with this model. Online auctions sites are another good example of C2C.
Consumer-to-Business (C2B) are where consumers make offers to business. This is a niche category. The best known is Priceline (www.priceline.com) where consumers can offer to pay a particular amount for an airline ticket.
As well as the models shown in the diagram, it has been suggested that employees should be considered as a separate type of consumer through the use of intranets, this is referred to as employee-to-employee or E2E. Similarly, government services can be referred to as G2B or G2C.