For many of these businesses, being on AOL, Excite or Yahoo is an intended crescendo of marketing efforts, and sometimes an expensive ticket to online market legitimacy. Such fees make these portals appear to have become exclusive clubs rather than open gateways. After all, these portals are only ONE of several choices of electronic distribution channel segments. There are six distinct segments of Web distribution that must be exploited separately. The main Web site.
Every organization has a main Web site, with a publicly available and recognizable address.
But this is only one place to do electronic business. The private Web site. Companies provide higher value services and options to their immediate trading partners. By acting as information wholesalers, distributors, and sometimes aggregators, these portals have become a critical element in the new electronic value chain. Just when we thought that the Internet would allow us to get rid of the middleman, here come the big portals to assume that role, assertively.