eBay and the Early e-Business Categories The early e-business categories represented a novel approach to conducting business no matter the method, whether business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) as eBay was. As a C2C e-business, eBay created a platform whereby consumers could cut out the middle man and engaged directly with sellers (which were typically other consumers, as eBay represented itself as a giant yard sale, where everyone was invited to post their goods, but gradually began to include small businesses which viewed the portal as a place where they could market directly to buyers as well) (Steiner, 2014). The ability of eBay to utilize so many models of e-business in its one single set-up showed that e-business could cater to any type of category by reducing the need for the middle man. Amazon would take it a step further and serve as the middle man, connecting buyers to sellers that would otherwise never have an opportunity to meet. For eBay, the different e-business categories' usefulness as a tool for guiding an e-business's growth plans indicated that the sky was the limit so long as the business served the purpose of connected buyers with sellers. This was the lesson...

Thus eBay was able to achieve recognition, consumer loyalty and rapid growth as a result of its ability to launch itself as the ultimate C2C destination for e-business transactions. Its entire business model was based on being a C2C platform for users. As a tool for guiding an e-business's growth plans, this model appeared to work relatively well for eBay, but this was partly driven by the uniqueness and novelty of eBay's concept. Overtime, other e-businesses began to offer the same categorical methods of transacting sales, whether C2C or B2C or B2B (Amazon was one, but others like Etsy put a creative spin on it and offered these services in an alternate manner), but in terms of guiding growth, more was needed than…