In a recent report "The U.S. e-Marketplace Status and Advancement Plan," KOTRA said that the U.S. e-commerce market was US$1.1 trillion last year with 18.3% of manufacturing and 10% of wholesale transactions conducted via e-commerce. Predicting that the market is expected to grow by more than 10% annually, the state-run trade promotion agency urged domestic enterprises to strengthen their efforts to export through the major industrial e-MPs in the U.S. where e-commerce has been established.

KOTRA also said that general B2B e-commerce means all transactions by the Internet, but e-MP is a cyber marketplace where buyers and sellers (exporters) meet. Site operators operate the system to support transactions between buyers and sellers. The agency also explained that e-MP brings various effects such as shortening of product development cycles, cooperation with suppliers, product price cut, etc. It added that recently, with the addition of new services such as CRM, electronic payment request and payment systems, management of e-catalogues and electronic inventory control, e-MP also brings a 1-2% productivity enhancement effect through efficient buyer-seller cooperation.

Forecasting that of the about 700 e-MPs in the U.S., only one to three majors in each industrial sector will survive in the end, KOTRA stressed necessity of active endeavors to utilise promising e-MPs by industry for advancement into the country. The areas that draw Korean exporters' interest are third-party-type e-MPs, most of which are 'vertical-structure marketplaces' operated on a brokerage commission basis in general rather than purchase agent services. Promising third-party consumer goods e-MPs for Korea's advance, for example, are cited as e-Bay, Ariba, Commerce One, FreeMarket, Priceline, etc. Those for specialized industry fields are NTE (logistics), Usbid (info-telecom), Networkint'l (energy), Ecmarket (farm products), Chemconnect (chemicals), etc.