The Role of "Customer-to-Customer" Interaction on Computer Networks

Abstract

This paper discusses how computer networks provide channels for customer-to-customer (C-to-C) communication and how such interaction changes the dynamics of the marketplace.

The author identifies three primary patterns of communication involving sellers and customers in the market. First is the traditional mass marketing communication employing one-way media from the seller to the customers. Second is "one-to-one" marketing based on two-way interactive communication between the seller and the customers. Third is the C-to-C interaction, in which customers directly communicate with one another.

A case research describes how users of Hewlett-Packard miniature computers voluntarily organized themselves on an electronic bulletin board to make the machine accommodate Japanese. A quantitative research on the nature of C-to-C interaction on electronic bulletin boards indicates the importance of "heavy users" -users of products who take initiatives in forming and operating user groups- in the creation of active C-to-C interaction. The research also suggests that the over-presence of sellers tends to weaken C-to-C interaction.