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E-commerce Platforms: History
Please note this is an old version of this entry, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Contributor: Luyun Yu

E-commerce platforms are digital services that facilitate the online exchange of goods and services by connecting buyers with sellers and providing technological infrastructure for product discovery, ordering, payment, and transaction coordination. They include online marketplaces that enable third-party sellers to reach consumers, as well as retailer-operated websites and applications through which businesses sell their own products [1][2]. Depending on their business models, platforms may also provide product listings, search and recommendation systems, payment processing, logistics coordination, customer reviews, dispute resolution, and seller-management tools. From a digital economics perspective, many e-commerce platforms operate as multisided markets in which the participation of buyers and sellers influences the value of the platform to each group. These network effects, together with pricing structures, data access, and platform governance, can shape competition, market access, and value creation [2][3]. Platform operators may generate revenue through transaction commissions, advertising, subscriptions, service fees, or direct retail sales. Their strategic choices concerning fees, ranking systems, access rules, and data use influence interactions among participants and the distribution of economic value. E-commerce platforms therefore constitute both technological infrastructures for online transactions and organizational arrangements that structure commercial relationships in digital markets.

  • digital platforms
  • online marketplaces
  • platform economics
  • multisided markets
  • network effects
  • digital business models
  • platform governance

References

  1. OECD. (2025). The 2025 OECD Definition of E-commerce and Guidelines for Interpretation. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/2254f1de-en
  2. OECD. An Introduction to Online Platforms and Their Role in the Digital Transformation; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD): Paris, France, 2019. [CrossRef]
  3. Jean-Charles Rochet; Jean Tirole; Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets. J. Eur. Econ. Assoc. 2003, 1, 990-1029, 10.1162/154247603322493212.
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