Perspective

Can regional hubs anchored by utilities overcome the liquidity problem of other B2B procurement exchanges?

Electronic commerce, until now, has been limited to use mostly by techno-geeks as a new way to match sellers in Boise with buyers in Bhutan. But some people are realizing that the Internet offers a means for old-line businesses like utilities to make real money in ways they couldn't previously-and right in their own backyards.

Only recently defined by single-seller websites targeted to consumers, the e-commerce landscape is increasingly populated with business-to-business ventures. Early B2B ventures have been vertical, with goods and services targeted to a particular industry, but the latest slice of the market is horizontal, involving buyers across industries. Utilities stand to reap big profits and recast their stock valuations from a variation of these horizontal hubs, the "regional horizontal hub."