Business Website Types

There are five types of business webs. What type is yours? Understanding what the business web (b-web) types are will articulate your vision for a web presence and define its mission.

Economic Control

Some b-webs are hierarchical; they have a leader who controls the content of the value proposition, the pricing, and the flow of transactions.

Value Integrations

Some b-webs focus on high value integration, that is, facilitating the production of specific product or service offerings (like cars, computers, consulting services) by integrating value contributions from multiple sources.

What Type of B-Web Will Your Be?

Agora

Buyers and sellers meet to freely negotiate and assign value to goods.

Agora	Main Theme		Dynamic Pricing
	Value Proposition		Liquidity— converting goods into a desirable price
	Customer Role		Market Player
	Knowledge Focus		Timing Market Intelligence
	Key Process		Price Discovery
	Examples		Yahoo! Classifieds EBay Priceline

Aggregation

One company leads in hierarchical fashion, positioning itself as a value-adding intermediary between producers and customers.

Aggregation	Main Theme		Selection & Convenience
	Value Proposition		Optimization of selection, organization, price, convenience, matching, and fulfillment
	Customer Role		Buyer
	Knowledge Focus		Market Segmentation Supplier Offerings Fulfillment
	Key Process		Needs Matching
	Examples		Amazon.com Travelocity

Value Chain

Output meets a customer order or market opportunity, the seller has the final say in pricing.

Value Chain	Main Theme		Process Integration
	Value Proposition		Design and delivery of an integrated product or service that meets a specific set of customer needs
	Customer Role		Value Driver
	Knowledge Focus		Innovation Supply-chain management
	Key Process		Product design Supply-chain management
	Examples		Dell Computer Cisco Systems

Alliance

Participants design goods or services, create knowledge, or simply produce dynamic, shared experiences.

Alliance	Main Theme		Creativity
	Value Proposition		Creative collaboration in aid of a goal shared across a community of contributors
	Customer Role		Contributor
	Knowledge Focus		Community Creativity Standards and roles
	Key Process		Innovation
	Examples		America Online MP3

Distributive Network

Services other types of b-webs by allocating and delivery goods from providers to users, plays a vital role in ensuring the healthy balance of the systems they support.