Another problem is the low credit card penetration in the country. The world over, payment through credit cards has been integral to the success of e-commerce. Another important fact to be considered is that in B2B transactions the transactional exchange of business needs to be a complete collaboration house. Apart from being a service to introduce the parties, the potential winners in the new era would be those whoform consortia. Though B2B e-commerce is a raging success in the US, it may yet not apply widely to India since most users here are not converted into repeat consumers. The key to this conversion, experts say, lies in segmentation and not having a mass market audience.

There is no denying that developments thought impossible two years ago are taking place because of the benefits that accrue through e-commerce. The major automobile companies in the US, who have traditionally been at each other's throats, have come together to bring in greater efficiencies into their buying processes. Traditional foes are now becoming friends. Now they can bargain for the best price and bring cost of their products down to benefit the ultimate consumer. Such is the power of the new e-market. "With the e-market creating new mediaries and putting them on a central platform, a growing proportion of all business will happen in the e-marketplace. In turn, this development is helping pro-actively transform industrial structures. This is because e-markets consolidate buyers and sellers to create new liquidity, converting one-2-many into many-2-many. The critical success factors in the e-market place include deep industrial knowledge, clear value proposition, good governance and participation ofstakeholders.

Going a step further, the e-markets are bound to give rise to `mega-markets' forcing markets that were initially vertical to integrate, even if on a piecemeal basis, with the horizontal e-markets.

In this scenario, while vertical players supply the domain expertise, the horizontal players would provide the functional expertise. How does one ensure that his B2B venture is a success? Almost every speaker at the recent Nasscom e-biz 2000 seminar spoke of the essential functions that could lead to success, underscoring the fact that though order matching is a core function of such a venture, entrepreneurs should go beyond it.

It is essential that while maximum reductions are effected in the cost of supply chain and inventory, the entrepreneur should be able to provide value-added service around transactions. The next important aspect is to transform the business into an active collaboration exchange to bring the maximum benefits to the ultimate buyers. B2B and B2C have also helped give birth to the anytime-anywhere phenomenon. Take the case of a man, flying from Mumbai to New York, ordering something to be delivered in his hotel at the destination. The supplier ensures that the material ordered is delivered at the specified time at the specified place. This qualitative dimension to time adds a lot of value. Replication of the senses of taste and touch are being developed by two separate groups of US researchers. All this will go to add value to service provided by B2B and B2C portals the world over.

It is in this scenario that e-market place assumes phenomenal importance. No wonder then that one e-market is getting created every six hours. And it also makes it essential that each entrepreneur, particularly in the brick & click economy, gets as close to the customer as possible and understand what the customer has been, what he is and what he wants to be. This can only be brought with a high level of market efficiency and transparency. All this can happen only when efforts are made to empower the end-users. Today the Indian buyer uses the net only to find what is available and the price. Then he goes to the market and tries to get a close enough deal with the retailers.

This situation can be changed only if B2B entrepreneurs broaden their scope around distinctive functionality and convince the buyer that they can provide them the best of stuff at the best price and guarantee timely delivery followed by after sales service. The experts also lay stress on brand building. Most of them see tremendous merit in banner advertising on the web. But all this can happen only when the Internet user base improves.

And that can happen only when we have higher bandwidth. Is the dotcom bubble about to burst? What are the opportunities available here? The general opinion is that what many see as a crash is only the process of separating the men from the boys. Those with sound fundamentals will succeed in the long run. Instead of bursting, the bubble is bound to swell further in the coming five years. As for the opportunities, one can only say that they are tremendous. Every third person in the country seems to be having at least one finger in the dotcom pie. India's very large, virgin market has everything to offer. For instance, a country like Finland has a 66-70 per cent telecom density. Even if India manages to reach half that mark the growth opportunities would be mind-boggling. In short, the country has the potential to become one of the largest Internet players in the world.