The Study of Digital Marketplace in Brunei Darussalam

Introduction

With the accelerating progress of the Internet, businesses can generate new opportunities that create values through digital technologies of the Internet. Lumpkin and Gregory (2004) state that the Internet has a significant impact on the economy that acts as a technology-driven initiative. The rapid progress of the Internet is genuinely fast that it dictates the expansion patterns of other sectors in which businesses that conduct their operations through the Internet have proposed appropriate recommendations to thrive in the marketplace (Mahadevan, 2000).

The Internet has changed how businesses conduct transactions, along with creating a new form of interaction with consumers, which leads to electronic commerce (e-commerce). Andam (2003) states that e-commerce is associated with a vast range of business activities made online that incorporates products and services. These include any forms of business transactions that involve in the interaction between parties that made electronically rather than by physical purchase or direct physical contact. Business transactions made can be B2B (business to business) e-commerce, a form of e-commerce between companies, that deals with the relationships between and among companies. Another type of e-commerce is B2C (business to consumer) e-commerce, which is e-commerce between companies and consumers. These involve consumers collecting information, buying physical products (furniture and consumer goods), or information goods (e-books or software) which received over an electronic network. While C2C (consumer to consumer) e-commerce refers to commerce between individuals or consumers, which are identified by the advancement of electronic marketplaces and online auctions. (Andam, 2003)

Bakos (1991) states that the presence of a transaction process generally indicates the interactions between buyers and sellers of a market where products and services exchanged between consumers and suppliers. A typical e-commerce is digital marketplace that consists of the sell-side (allowing businesses to sell their products to buyers), buy-side (enabling companies to carry out procurement tasks), and a marketplace (electronic marketplaces lead numerous buyers and sellers together in a single web) that mediate transactions (Durfee & Chen, 2002). E-commerce recent technologies on the internet have modified the range of capability of conducting operations in the marketplace (Chircu & Kauffman, 2013).

The presence of these technologies in the current fast-paced, innovative environment has enabled products and services offered in a new and better way for consumers. Giaglis, Klein, and O’Keefe (2000) state that the function of electronic markets as digital intermediaries brings buyers and sellers together on a digital platform. eBay was one of the earliest digital intermediaries of platforms that mediate transactions in which did not previously exist (Bailey & Bakos, 1997). According to Sarkar, Butler, & Steinfield (2006), almost every digital intermediary supports the interactions between buyers and sellers. Where new regulatory form recognized acts as a digital intermediary, operating as a digital support role that prioritizes the intermediation between buyer and seller. Bakos (1998) mentioned the benefits of digital intermediaries include assuring that the transaction can deliver expertise on products and operations along with informational support and guarantee on successful completion of transactions.