Experts who follow this emerging market refer to the boom with great excitement and consider it to be the single phenomenon that will redeem the world from a widespread state of recession. I can't help but subscribe to this view, but I am tempted to take a more cautious angle of the whole hungama.

The reason why I am tempering my excitement with a bit of wariness is linked to the focus area of the present industry pundits. A lot of noise is currently being made about the B2C (Business-To-Consumer) aspect of e-business, which seamlessly brings together the customer and the business, to a common virtual platform. This is no doubt a huge shift in the way we have conducted trading thus far in the history of mankind -- and I suspect that our trading face has been forever changed. But, as far as the Indian context is concerned, the success and appeal of the B2C wing will probably remain a little clipped at least till a few core infrastructural issues are solved.

Forrester research claims that in 1998 alone, there have been B2B transactions amounting to over $43 billion in the US as compared to $7.3 billion of the B2C transactions. Almost a whopping fifth of the B2B transactions take place through portals. And by the year 2002, industry experts estimate that the B2B auction business would be worth over $52.6 billion globally.

In India also, the scene is no less competitive. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates, through an elaborate study it conducted recently, that the e-commerce pie will be worth Rs 40,000 crore by the year 2003. Even if the B2B segment contributed to a fifth of the B2B transactions, we would still be viewing a Rs 8,000 crore pie. The study in fact predicts that given the Indian conditions, the B2B business share could be even bigger. Poor penetration of the Internet in India, absence of cyber laws and difficulties in striking a viable business model for B2C may well make the B2B sector the next focal point for companies.

Figures may not always be the right indicator of the extent of clout that the B2B industry is likely to wield in the years to come. Exciting as B2B promises to be, it definitely is not an option that would come for free. Any salesperson or staff proponent for the B2B model would have her own tale of woe to relate.

Even after all this hue and cry about the expanding or rather shrinking marketplace, there are those of us who believe that holding on to our traditional fiefdom of non-e-business, is more likely to be a winning strategy! Or it may be that the resistance to change is simply too overpowering. Whatever the reason may be, there is still a considerable resistance to the idea of shifting to e-trading.

In spite of all this, it is still a clear path to lasting success for the B2B model, which has come a long way from being in a state of incubation in industry dreamers' minds. There is of course a downside to the entire exercise in that after this boom, there is definitely going to be a shakeout in which the proverbial wheat shall be separated from the chaff -- in fact, it is already happening. The point is that the B2B industry is here to stay, and it is likely to expand to hitherto uncharted terrain.

There is no doubting the fact that it is to be the face of business and trading in the coming years. But the players who will survive the test are likely to be just a handful. And incidentally, they will not be the "lucky few", but will instead be those with the vision and techno know-how to back it. Even so, all said and done, I truly am amazed at the extent to which all these technologies have, at the end of the day, become P2P (people-to-people) businesses. Right from their embryonic stage, computers and IT have striven to systematically decimate the concept of distance, but e-trade has surpassed all that has happened so far in the world in terms of breaking down barriers - be it cultural, economic or trade.

There is a very definite social fusion that has happened on account of this e-phenomenon. People are reaching out to people irrespective of caste, creed, religion or geography. And, besides, people are turning entrepreneurial and creative than ever before. For instance, great corporate chieftains like Gurcharan Das and Jerry Rao too have jumped on to the entrepreneurial bandwagon. This, by itself, is a validation of the e-concept and demonstrates its inherent weight. And while individuals may fail or survive or succeed, finally, people as a community will be successful - with better ideas, wisdom and, in some cases, wealth.

What greater victory could the Internet ask for?The author is chairman and managing director, Polaris Software Lab, Chennai