Question

In Common

What do social networks, auctions, and portals have in common?

Auctions

eBay is most famous but there are others. Economists would argue that auctions bring efficiency to markets, however, there are issues and challenges in Internet-based auctions. Investigate and discuss the role of auctions (both B2C and B2B) now and into the future of e-commerce and identify & discuss the issues and challenges.

Auctions command a very important position in B2B e-commerce for commodities, real estate, heavy equipment, finance (yes, the stock market is an auction)

* You may argue that auctions do not command the popularity that they once did. So, consider why that is and discuss.

Answer 1

Social network , auctions and portal find their basis due to the tussle between agreement and disagreement between different set of people. To make it more clear, let's take the example of social media where people express their ideas and emotions and other people either agree/subscribe to that idea or do not support it ( even liking your friend's picture on fb or insta is a sign of approval).

So, I believe auction in case of businesses is relevant these days only when a seller has a product whose value he/she is not able to ascertain. Different people in different economic strata are willing to pay different amounts of money for the same product or service. With the internet, accessibility has increased manifold thus allowing people to reach out to a wider set of people to solicit their opinion and assess what they would like to offer for a product or service which was not possible earlier.