INMA_A01.QXD

The following case study is an example of a new business model and gives you an

opportunity to review the marketplace for this product.

CHAPTER 2· THE INTERNET MICRO-ENVIRONMENT

Table 2.8Portal characteristics

Type of portal Characteristics Example

Access portal Associated with ISP Wanadoo (www.wanadoo.com)

AOL (www.aol.com)

Horizontal or Range of services: Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com)

functional portal search engines, directories, MSN (www.msn.com)

news recruitment, personal Lycos (www.lycos.com)

information management,

shopping, etc.

Vertical A vertical portal covers a Construction Plus

particular market such as (www.constructionplus.co.uk)

construction with news and Chem Industry (www.chemindustry.com)

other services

Media portal Main focus is on consumer BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)

or business news or Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk)

entertainment ITWeek (www.itweek.co.uk)

Geographical May be:

(region, country, local) 
horizontal Yahoo! country and city versions


vertical Countyweb (www.countyweb.com)

Marketplace May be: EC21 (www.ec21.com)


 horizontal eBay (www.eBay.com)


 vertical


 geographical

Search portal Main focus is on search Google (www.google.com)

Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com)

Media type May be: BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)


voice Silicon (www.silicon.com)


video

Delivered by streaming

media or downloads of files

Case Study 2 Zopa launches a new lending model

Context
It might be thought that innovation in business models
was left behind in the dot-com era, but still fledgling busi-
nesses are launching new online services. Zopa is an
interesting example launched in March 2005.
Zopa is an online service which enables borrowers and
lenders to bypass the big high street banks. It is an exam-
ple of a consumer-to-consumer exchange intermediary. It
illustrates the challenges and opportunities of launching a
new business online, especially a business with a new
business model.
Zopa stands for ‘Zone of Possible Agreement’ which is a
term from business theory. It refers to the overlap between

one person’s bottom line (the lowest they’re prepared to

receive for something they are offering) and another

person’s top line (the most they’re prepared to pay for

something). In practice, this approach underpins negotia-

tions about the majority types of products and services.

The business model

The exchange provides a matching facility between

people who want to borrow and people who want to lend.

Significantly, each lender’s money is parcelled out

between at least 50 borrowers. Zopa revenue is based on

charging borrowers 1 per cent of their loan as a fee, and

from commission on any repayment protection insurance