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Technology Stocks : B2B - Business to Business Inet Stocks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: d. alexander who wrote (13)	10/1/1999 8:31:00 AM
From: janet kuhnert	Respond to of 610

Internetstocks.com FORMAL LAUNCH OF B2B COMMERCE SECTOR: This week we formerly launched focused coverage on Business-to-Business (B2B) eCommerce companies. We believe that B2B companies represent the next major stage of Internet growth and stock appreciation-substantially eclipsing the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) space by several orders of magnitude. In our opinion, we are approaching an inflection point as the evolution of the Internet and IT systems, coupled with broad market factors, are setting the stage for B2B growth. The evolution of enabling technologies has resulted in the broad access, bandwidth, security and reliability necessary to handle huge transaction volumes. B2C eCommerce has also validated Internet models-as evidenced by the success of companies such as AOL, Amazon, eBay and Yahoo!. In addition, business applications have evolved from back-office accounting and reporting systems to front-office solutions that are now capable of supplier and customer interaction. Moreover, an increasingly competitive marketplace and the need to dot.com the business are compounding demand for B2B solutions. We believe B2B eCommerce represents one of the largest Internet opportunities moving forward-where the addressable markets and rate of adoption will far exceed B2C. Today, of the more than $20 trillion in goods and services that change hands in the U.S. annually, business-to-business transactions account for approximately $17 trillion, or 85% of total commerce. Assuming 10% of business-to-business transactions in the U.S. move online by 2003, the implied eCommerce value exceeds $1.7 trillion. The global market could more than double the U.S. in size assuming even lower adoption rates. We believe new companies with new solutions are best positioned to address the complexities and sophistication of B2B. B2B is characterized by intricate handshaking, front-end customization, financing, cross-border logistics and regulations among fragmented buyers and suppliers. Moreover, products are mission critical and highly time-sensitive, resulting in the need for real-time, robust solutions that can handle heavy volume and tightly integrate with back-office systems. Domain expertise is critical-giving rise to vertical solutions that address the unique dynamics of each industry. We believe B2B will introduce powerful benefits to both buyers and sellers-lowering the cost of doing business, creating markets on a network scale, and improving service levels. B2B lowers product and procurement costs and speeds time-to-market while creating larger markets for suppliers and more vendor choices for buyers. Moreover, it enables suppliers to offer greater breadth of products and services, real-time interaction and shorter delivery times. We believe B2B business models will enable companies to grow bigger, faster-producing winners with lasting franchises. B2B eCommerce companies will possess a number of attributes, including a high ROI proposition, sticky solutions, and Internet reach. In our opinion, these drivers are fueling rapid adoption and the rise of huge, lasting franchises.