The bold new world of B2E

When I joined journalism decades ago, there was a clear demarcation between B2B and B2C. Business-to-business meant companies that dealt with other businesses, like manufacturers, retailers and other firms like accountancies. The business-to-consumer world was by and large synonymous with the retail industry. Then there was also a term which didn’t become that popular called B2G or business-to-government. Now the lines are blurring and everyone does everything.

Nothing typifies this more than Amazon. The company is a monolith and the net worth of owner Jeff Bezos is at par with small countries. Amazon is a household name with consumers all over the world but its web services (AWS) clocked annual revenues upward of #25 billion. You as a solo consumer can avail their services (B2C) as can businesses (B2B) and governments (B2G). In fact a virtually redundant term which didn’t really catch on is B2B e-commerce.

Bezos also owns the Washington Post in his personal capacity but streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, of course led by Netflix, are out to replace Hollywood in its totality. Talking of traditional media, Facebook and Google make more money of it then the newspapers and TV channels themselves. Social Media has surpassed mainstream media in terms of reach, brand recall and revenue.

Once the B2Bs were the giants of the stock market but not anymore! FAANG—Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google—all deal with the consumer directly and are strong household brands. Of course that doesn’t stop any of them from being B2B giants too, or getting into B2G.

Companies are diversifying vertically and getting into so many tie-ups that nobody knows what anyone does any more. There’s no real speciality left. The Venn diagram of all companies and what they claim to do is seeing a severe overlap. Everyone’s seems to be doing things like Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things revolution promises to turn every device on earth into a networked device.

In the 1930s, IBM was a tabulating equipment company. In the 1960s it got into the computer industry. In the 2000s it sold off its computer business to Lenovo. Today it’s still a giant into managed services, outsourcing and consulting. Such transformations are more rapid and more diverse today. The term startup also could be misleading as the larger ones are being called unicorns. In a large market you may well find a new startup at No. 1 and an old traditional giant at No. 2.

Even the smartphone has become the first truly “everything” device. The truth is that all lines have got blurred. Welcome to the bold new world of B2E. Everyone does business with everybody and everyone does everything.