b2b

b2b article on Forbes.com Best of the Web

Hi Everyone, Here is the article from Forbes on B2b industry as a whole, b2b Marketplace are covered from different industries, and b2b marketing size numbers are provided. I am copying and pasting the article on this SEO blog, below the link to the Forbes online page. As these big companies often move content and store it, the link may not stay live. Do visit the folks at Forbes, as they did the article, I am just promoting it as we are trying to understand the market size of the b2b industry as a whole. We are doing this to gain a niche for our online marketplace.

Forbes.com Best of the Web

B2B

From the depths of 2000 and 2001, business-to-business e-commerce is once again getting bubbly with enthusiasm. According IDC, worldwide B2B e-commerce is expected to grow 55% this year to $3.4 trillion. However, instead of the big incumbent software and services firms reaping all of the spoils, there is a new crop of open-source up-starts gaining acceptance in corporate IT department. Suddenly big players like Oracle, Microsoft and SAP are scrambling to protect their flanks as the open-source invasion hits their core markets. Meanwhile, another up-start of sorts in the online advertising business, Google, continues to amaze skeptics. This 5,000-employee juggernaut now sports a market capitalization of more than $104 billion, bigger than another notable marketing company, Coca-Cola, with 50,000 employees.

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Advertising
According to David Card, an ad analyst at Jupiter, online ads will bring in $11.9 billion in 2005, up from $9.3 billion last year. That’s still a …

Aerospace & Defense
Despite the ongoing war, defense aerospace equipment orders are not substantially up. And a shrinking volume of new equipment orders on the …

Agriculture
Some 80% of the 250,000 top-producing U.S. farmers use the Internet. Sites surviving the recent shakeout in e-agriculture help farmers connect faster …

Automotive
The automotive B2B landscape suffered a defeat in 2004 when the Big Three automakers threw in the towel on Covisint, its highly touted cooperative …

Business Process Outsourcing
Companies turn to Business Process Outsourcing firms to handle non-essential day-to- day business tasks such as human resources, document management …

Chemicals
With a commodity business like chemicals, prices can be the key factor in whether or not these cyclical companies makes money. So it was with relief …

Collaboration
Collaboration is one of the Web’s killer apps. A few years ago enterprise software companies dominated this space with Web conferencing and other …

Computers
Most businesses already use the Web to buy and sell computers and find IT services like Web-hosting. In this business the competition is fierce and …

Construction
Many online B2B companies learned the hard way that contractors don’t want to purchase their materials online or do business without a handshake. …

Content Management
Structuring, sorting, and routing an increasing flow of digital information are at the heart of what content management companies do for their …

Customer Relationship Management
The incredible shrinking world of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) continues. After many years as a best-of-breed darling, a rapidly fading …

Electronics
Speed is what’s important in the electronics industry. That’s why online auctions didn’t work out: companies simply couldn’t wait to see if they won …

Energy
Giant, thriving, deregulated energy-trading exchanges were once thought to be the future. Enron’s spectacular collapse and its fall out, have nearly …

Excess Inventory
When supply exceeds demand companies need to unload their surplus inventory. The Web, it turns out, has become one of the greatest liquidators of …

Financial Content Providers
Timely access to accurate information is critical for anyone involved in the markets. As a result, financial content providers have florished on the …

Financial Services
There is a bitter rivalry forming among a few of the top players on our financial business to business list. CheckFree posted some disappointing …

Food & Beverage
It’s been a rough year for public exchanges in the food and beverage industries. Sites like FoodUSA and Foodscape have folded. Others, like …

Healthcare
Web applications and healthcare have always held great promise. Thanks in part to physician’s resistance to change, that promise has been largely …

Hospitality & Travel
The North American hotel business spends $80 billion annually, and nearly 65% of all hotel rooms are operated by the top six companies. All eyes are …

Human Resources
Firms that perform human resources functions for other companies tend to specialize in either a particular functionality or in the type of customer …

Industrial Equipment
Not long ago industrial equipment looked like an ideal candidate for online exchanges. Lately, the focus has shifted to private exchanges and …

Knowledge Services
Does your company have an “information” strategy? Do your key employees have efficient access to the latest content? Look to the companies below for …

Logistics
Small logistics companies are thriving. RedPrarie and HighJump (now owned by 3M) are the best-of-class, but others, like G-Log, are also notable. …

Metals
The metals business may not yet be ready to accept the B2B revolution. MetalSite, Aluminum.com and MetalSpectrum have shut down. E-Steel has become a …

Paper & Forest Products
The paper industry is reeling as overcapacity, consolidation and globalization have led to mill closings and employee layoffs. Any help these …

Procurement
The procurement business has gone through some consolidation over the past year and as a result, the boundaries separating procurement companies and …

Real Estate
Commercial realty’s embrace of the Web has been slow. Only half of real estate firms have a common property information database and only 16% of are …

Retailing
For retailers, the Web has made the world a much smaller place and now retail firms of any size can more easily tap far away factories and …

Security
Web security is one of the hottest growth areas of online B2B. Even Google, Microsoft and AOL have recently acquired their way into the business. The …

Small Business
The Internet can be a powerful tool for small businesses. Many these days exist almost completely online, purchasing, marketing and selling their …

Supply Chain Management
Big is good in supply chain. That was Oracle’s thinking when it snapped up best-of-breed competitors G-Log and Retek this year, placing it in a dead …

Telecommunications
A year ago bandwidth was hot and telecom stocks were soaring. Today there is a fiber-optics glut and an industrywide depression. In an effort to …

Trading Platforms
The Web is a haven for upstart and established financial trading operations. But hard times have hit. A shakeout has eliminated BondBook and Atriax, …

Web Services
Interoperability is the name of the game with Web services. Companies don’t want to worry about getting Microsoft Windows applications to talk to …

Wireless
Businesses are anxious to deploy wireless technologies that will make them more efficient and reduce costs. Problem is, it’s taken awhile for those …

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