Intel opens B2B e-marketplace

Intel has rolled out a business-to-business e-marketplace that brings together its dealers and suppliers, just days after the collapse of Dell's online exchange.

The Intel Business Advantage Portal allows Intel dealers to earn discounts and commissions on PC products and ebusiness related services. It has initially been launched in the US and Canada but the programme is currently being piloted in the UK.

An Intel spokeswoman said: "Members don't need to do anything to 'sign on', they simply 'click to accept' the legal terms and conditions online and can immediately start taking advantage of the benefits of the portal." Plextor, PC-Doctor, QLogic, Iomega and McAfee.com are among the first members of the scheme.

Intel's e-marketplace is launched just days after Dell closed its four-month old online trading scheme, mainly because of a lack of interest. The Intel spokeswoman declined to draw comparisons between the two marketplaces, but claimed that the chip giant has established mutually beneficial relationships with its dealers and continues to look for ways to provide value to them.

Separately, FirstPeer has introduced an online marketplace based on the file-trading technology made popular by Napster. The peer-to-peer marketplace, called GnuMarkets, allows consumers and businesses to buy, sell and trade items without the use of a central server.

Brent Gutekunst, president of First Peer, explained that GnuMarkets takes advantage of the combined computing resources of participants. "This eliminates the need for large centralised servers that are the expensive and inefficient weak link in most marketplaces," he said.