JUPITER RESEARCH, New York, has announced that B2B spending on infrastructure spending in the United States will grow from $2.1 billion in 2000 to $80.9 billion by 2005. In a recent report released by Jupiter on Internet markets, the company found that the growth of private sector Internet markets will drive much of the future spending on technology and services needed to integrate business partners into a collaborative commerce environment. "The shift towards Internet markets by many brick-and-mortar businesses brings to light many significant back-end integration issues," said Mark Harrison, research director at Jupiter. "This translates to huge revenue opportunities for technology and service enablers, something we will see even more of as these marketplaces reach the next level of maturity." Harrison said vendor opportunities increase substantially as Internet markets integrate deeper into the supply chain and require more than basic transaction platforms.
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FOODUSA.COM, Madison, Wis., an on-line B2B exchange that handles trades of meats and poultry, has shut down, leaving 22 employees out of work. The B2B food exchange closed after it failed to find a buyer. According to press reports, officials at FoodUSA.com blamed their demise on too much competition in its industry from rival Commerce Ventures, a fledgling B2B founded by Tyson Foods, IBP, Gold Kist, Cargill and Farmland Industries. FoodUSA.com chairman Rod Heller said his company had been talking with officials from Commerce Ventures about partnering. While Commerce Ventures has yet to go live, Heller said meat and poultry traders proved unwilling to participate with his ompany until they saw what Commerce Ventures was going to do.
