Portfolio Companies
Facilitating Commerce
Over the past decade, the network-enabled service model has been increasingly adopted as a means of allowing enterprises and consumers to engage in commercial transactions and other exchanges of value. In the consumer arena, a variety of network-enabled e-commerce solutions have received wide adoption, including on-line auctions, banking and payment services and general and specialized search engines. Similarly, enterprises have adopted sophisticated network-enabled business solutions such as electronic banking, payment and cash management services, electronic securities trading services, web hosting services and various “value-added” network services (e.g., electronic inventory and supply chain management services).
Providing a network-enabled service that facilitates commerce enables the service provider to access one or both of two important recurring revenue streams: (i) transaction-based revenue, whereby the service provider participates in transactions effected through the use of its service in the form of a commission or similar revenue-sharing arrangement; and (ii) advertising revenue, whereby the service provider sells advertising connected to its service and receives payments based on page views or “click-throughs” to e-commerce sites maintained by the advertiser.
