A Model for an Electronic Information Marketplace

Abstract

As the information content on the Internet increases, the task of locating desired information and assessing its quality becomes increasingly difficult. This development causes users to be more willing to pay for information that is focused on specific issues, verifiable, and available upon request. Thus, the nature of the Internet opens up the opportunity for information trading. In this context, the Internet cannot only be used to close the transaction, but also to deliver the product - desired information - to the user. Early attempts to implement such business models have fallen short of expectations. In this paper, we discuss the limitations of such practices and present a modified business model for information trading, which uses a reverse auction approach together with a multiple-buyer price discovery process