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)
eBay's growth, therefore, was predicated on the fact that it was on the frontier of the e-business world, forging the path. When others caught up and started making new paths, eBay's business model hit a way (Thompson, 2015)
S. made it a force to be reckoned with (Dolan, Karmarkar, 2014, p