An electronic auction (電子オークション) is a form of trade in which people who want an item listed online place bids (入札) against each other, and the one offering the highest price wins it (落札).
Seller lists an item
Buyers outbid each other
Highest bidder wins
At the close, the highest bidder gets the right to buy.
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Unlike a shop that sells at a price it has fixed in advance, the price here comes from buyers competing with one another. Sellers and buyers are often both individuals, so it has become a leading venue for trade between consumers.
AnalogyLike an art auction held online, with no one needing to gather in a hall.
How to rememberThe word auction comes from the Latin for “to increase”, which is just what the price does as the bids pile up.
Exam points
ExamAn electronic auction (電子オークション) where one individual wins an item another individual listed is a typical case of C to C, trade between consumers.
An e-marketplace (eマーケットプレイス) is a place where many seller and buyer companies gather in a single online electronic market (電子市場) to trade.
It is used mainly for trade between businesses (B to B) and saves the effort of hunting one by one for suppliers or customers of parts and materials. The operator brings sellers and buyers together and matches them, gathering many-to-many trade in one place.
AnalogyLike a wholesale market full of suppliers and dealers, opened on the internet.
How to rememberA marketplace is literally the place where a market is held: not one company's shop, but the venue where many companies gather.
An online mall (オンラインモール) is a virtual shopping street (仮想商店街) for consumers that brings many shops together on one website.
Shoppers can browse several stores and buy from them without leaving one site. The operator gives each store a place to open plus systems for attracting customers and taking payment, and collects fees such as tenant charges in return.
AnalogyLike the online version of a large shopping center filled with tenant stores.
How to rememberMall first meant a tree-lined walkway, and later came to mean a street lined with shops. Its other name is electronic shopping street (電子商店街).
Exam points
ExamWhen a consumer buys from a company that has a store in an online mall (オンラインモール), also called an electronic shopping street (電子商店街), the deal is B to C, between a business and a consumer.
Mix-upAn e-marketplace (eマーケットプレイス) mainly gathers trade between businesses, while an online mall gathers stores for consumers, so the two differ in who is on the other side of the deal.
An escrow service (エスクローサービス) is a service in which a trusted third party (第三者), not one of the people trading, holds the payment for a while and passes it to the seller once receipt of the goods is confirmed.
Buyer pays the third party
Seller ships the goods
Buyer reports receipt
Third party pays the seller
After receipt is confirmed, the third party releases the held money to the seller.
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When you trade with a stranger, neither the side that pays first nor the side that ships first can easily trust the other. Having a third party hold the money and stand in the middle makes it less likely that either side is the only one to lose out.
AnalogyLike two strangers trading through a trusted witness who holds the cash and hands it to the seller only after seeing the goods change hands.
How to rememberEscrow comes from an Old French word for a scroll or deed, meaning a document a third party keeps until the agreed conditions are met.
Exam points
ExamIn an escrow service (エスクローサービス), a trusted third party (第三者) outside the deal holds the payment and mediates, making the exchange of goods and money safer.
ExamA failed handover, such as paying and never getting the goods, is a risk that an escrow service helps prevent.
Internet trading (インターネットトレーディング) is a service for buying and selling stocks (株式) and other financial products (金融商品) online, without going through a securities firm's counter or phone line.
Users place orders from a PC or smartphone and can check price movements on the spot. Its fees are often set lower than for face-to-face dealing, and it is also called online trading (オンライントレード).
AnalogyLike a service window you reach from a screen at home instead of walking to a securities firm's counter.
How to rememberTrading means buying and selling. Unlike a mall or an auction, what changes hands is financial products, and the name gives that away.
Exam points
ExamInternet trading (インターネットトレーディング), where individual investors buy and sell shares on a securities firm's website, is an example of B to C, between a business and a consumer.
Crowdsourcing (クラウドソーシング) is a way of handing out work over the internet to an unspecified crowd (不特定多数) and recruiting people from outside the company to do it.
Jobs like design, translation and data entry can be split into small pieces and given to individuals outside the company. The client can find people with the right skills when it needs them, and workers can take jobs from wherever they are.
AnalogyLike calling out “Can anyone help with this task?” and splitting the work among those who raise their hands.
How to rememberCrowd plus sourcing. It is crowd as in a mass of people, not cloud, so read it as outsourcing widened to draw on the crowd.
Exam points
Mix-upCrowdsourcing (クラウドソーシング) recruits people to do work from an unspecified crowd (不特定多数), while crowdfunding (クラウドファンディング) raises money from one, so they differ in what they gather.
Crowdfunding (クラウドファンディング) is a way of posting a plan for a project or activity online and raising money (資金) bit by bit from an unspecified crowd (不特定多数) who support it.
Crowdfunding (by type of return)
Purchase type: rewarded with goods or services
Donation type: no return
Investment type: shares business profits
Lending type: repaid with interest
It lets people raise money straight from those who like their plan rather than relying on bank loans, so it is used to launch new businesses and creative work. It falls into several types depending on what backers get in return.
AnalogyLike a call to “make this idea happen”, where many supporters each chip in a little to reach a sum no one could put up alone.
How to rememberFunding means providing money, and it comes from the same word as fund.
Exam points
ExamCollecting donations online from an unspecified crowd (不特定多数) with nothing given back is also a form of crowdfunding (クラウドファンディング), called the donation type (寄付型).
ExamSharing business profits with backers as dividends (配当) is the investment type (投資型) of crowdfunding.