A summary of the companies in the article is as follows:

Site	Main Concerns
Storefronts
Printnation.com	Sell printing machines and consumables goods to medium-sized printing companies
Goprinter.com	Shopping Mall for printing consumable goods
Prepressmall.com	Transaction primary/secondary market for printing machines
Colorok.com	Transaction color management facilities and software
Printeralliance.com	Community for purchasing paper and consumable goods
Paperexchange.com	Paper distribution to large size printing companies
IPrint.com	Personal/SOHO service for small size printings
RFQ
Printbid.com	Auction service for customized orders
Printmarket.com	Auction service for customized orders
58k.com	Auction service for customized orders
Workflow Management
Collabria.com	Provide printing service ordering, DB, process management systems
Impresse.com	Provide printing service ordering, DB, process management systems
Noosh.com	Provide printing service ordering, DB, process management systems
Printchannel.com	Provide printing service ordering, DB, process management systems
Mediaflex.com	Process management system based on digital printing
Magnifi.com	Designing services
Other Services
ProofitOnline.com	Remote on line editing
Heeelp.com	Prepress consulting to members
Printlink.com	Headhunting service within printing industry

As the article was published in 1999 and the Internet has continued to develop since then, it is expected that more online printing com-panies exist at present. An update of the current market was published in the Seybold April 2000 volume 29, Number 10 Report under the title ' e-commerce in Printing: Update on the News and the Workflow Issues '.

The report analyzed various e-commerce-related companies; some have been listed on NASDAQ while others have perished. This is no difference from any Internet company. However, the increasing number of e-commerce players are significant.

To establish the front-end part: we need to have an electronic catalog, e-community and a solution like other B to B e-commerce.

B2B e-commerce can be divided into two parts: within the industry and outside the industry.

1. Within the printing industry: exchange printing machines, consumable goods, including printing paper.

   Benefits are:

   * Easy collection of information and comparison

   * Cost saving

   * Cost saving in inventory management

2. Outside the printing industry: exchange with client companies and consumers

   * Cost saving for both parties

   * Produce new business opportunities

   * Improving existing industry structure

However, there is a great need to reform in order to survive, since many leading companies are transforming their processes to go online, and there is a very high possibility of the printing processes being brought in-house, once the online process is finished, resulting in many printing-related companies to lose business. This is why there should be efforts to build a strong service, so that client companies will judge outsourcing to be more efficient and cost saving.
The diagram above is a summary of a report by the Boston Consulting Group in 1999 on 'Paper and the Electronic Media: Creating Value from Uncertainty'. This report is a study of the effects over paper consumption versus the steep increase of electronic information transmitting media such as the Internet. The diagram shows effects over several industries. The only industry that showed increase in paper consumption was office usage. Unlike the magazine industry where huge amount of the current demand will be reduced by 2003, office paper is expected to increase by 500,000 tons. By 2003, 5.2 million tons of paper will be replaced by electronic devices. This is meant to be only one of the effects of the Internet on the printing industry. Therefore, the printing industry needs to reform itself in order to survive.

Unlike the US market which is large enough to concentrate on domestic sales solely, any country in Asia needs to expand into Asia and other continents with a VORTAL site (Vertical + Portal) in order to survive and secure scalability, as stated in the August 8, Asian Wall Street Journal article ' Business to Business Exchanges in Asia will have to offer more than just an electronic forum if they are to flourish.

Overall, the Asian market, unlike the US market, is relatively behind in terms of constructing the infrastructure for e-commerce, and also has a lower investment efficiency rate because each market is too small for independent investments. To overcome such limitations, a regional approach should take place, looking into the Asian market as a whole, especially for the printing industry which is relatively small in size. Given a consolidated market place, Asian participants will be able to enjoy synergy effects, as well as sharing resources. B2B e-commerce, eventually, is to focus outward than inwards, and therefore, promote international exchanges worldwide.