C2C e-commerce in Depth

Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce or C2C is simply commerce between private individuals or consumers. This type of e-commerce is characterized by the growth of electronic marketplaces and online auctions, particularly in vertical industries where firms/businesses can bid for what they want from among multiple suppliers.16 It perhaps has the greatest potential for developing new markets.

This type of e-commerce comes in at least three forms:

• auctions facilitated at a portal, such as eBay, which allows online real-time bidding on items being sold in the Web;
• peer-to-peer systems, such as the Napster model (a protocol for sharing files between users used by chat forums similar to IRC) and other file exchange and later money exchange models; and
• classified ads at portal sites such as Excite Classifieds and eWanted (an interactive,online marketplace where buyers and sellers can negotiate and which features “Buyer Leads & Want Ads”).