SalvageSale.com seems to be the model of what a business to business enterprise should be. The Texas-based company uses the internet to bring together buyers and sellers from all over the world. They salvage everything from unwanted church pews and two-year-old canned cherries to a burned-out vessel in Louisiana and paper rolls from a large British paper mill.
Matching customers to commodities is by now a well worn theme in cyberspace, but the firm's management remains bullish on the issue. "SalvageSale.com will survive because we are first to the market, in a fragmented market, we have the right partners and an experienced team. This is not an MBA experiment," insists Dan Parsley, the company's 37-year-old president and chief executive.
When business to consumer internet companies - known as B2C - started to look vulnerable, B2B - business to business - companies were where investors headed. These businesses, selling to each other products and services over the internet, saving money in marketing and communication costs, were seen as the next logical step.
Unlike B2C, the new mantra went, B2B was not flaky.
The sector was also encouraged this week when five big motor manufacturers won approval in the US to set up an online exchange where they plan to conduct nearly all their $300bn of annual business with suppliers and with each other.
The US federal trade commission's review of the exchange, named Covisint, was the first given to an industry-wide, B2B operation. The FTC said it was giving Covisint permission to go ahead, but cautioned that the venture might still raise competition concerns once it is up and running.
Covisint comprises General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Renault and Nissan. "B2Bs have a great potential to benefit both businesses and consumers through increased productivity and lower prices," said the the US regulator's chairman, Robert Pitofsky.
Covisint has set a goal of eventually including 30,000 suppliers, but so far only 25 have agreed to be part of the exchange. Some suppliers have expressed worries that manufacturers would use Covisint to slash their profit margins.
However, the decision by the US regulators to approve the deal just weeks after the European Union had given the green light to an airplane parts B2B venture, Myaircraft.com, has given a much needed fillip to the sector.
The first casualties have appeared. Efdex, the electronic exchange for food and drink, was supposed to pull together the fragmented food industry in an exchange for buyers and sellers; this month they called in the receivers.
Founded in 1995 with $65m (£46.3m) of funding it was supposed to offer an exchange facility where food buyers, such as restaurants, could ask for a price on a foodstuff and have suppliers bidding for the contract. Efdex would take a sale commission: it did not work. Efdex only managed to sign up about 2,000 clients.
It seems the existing retailers were too strong in the market, and it has been reported that the company had no real business plan with which to work.
Stefan Burgstaller, European business to business analyst at Schroders Salomon Smith Barney, says firms can be successful if they are "focused and you select one particular functionality and you bring this at a timely fashion to the market, then this is a good ingredient to success".
Mr Parsley, who used to be with consultant Arthur Andersen, understands the risks. "There will be a tremendous amount of fallout because too many companies are pursuing the same thing. The survivors will be the ones who are first to market, have adequate funding and the right strategic partners."
Despite this there are many who remain upbeat about the sector. A recently launched venture, Just-sites.com, backed by venture capital group 3i, believes it, too, will avoid such a fate.
The Evesham-based company, which hopes to be in profit within 18 months, provides what it calls "industry knowledge sites" for the motor manufacturing, food, drinks and clothing sectors.
It saves money by cutting out printing and distribution costs, and because it is industry-specific the company does not have to spend large sums on marketing - the bane of the B2C sector. Just-sites has established links with big players in its industries, and visits to its sites are increasing by 50% a month and revenues are over target.
'You can't fool business'
Allan Davies, the chief executive of Just-sites.com, says difficulties arise on the internet when people try to offer B2B services for an industry of which they are not already a part and have no real links with.
Mr Davies believes the people who will win are those who combine a good understanding of how the internet works with an understanding of their own industrial sector. "You can't fool the business to business industry like you can the consumers," he says.
Meanwhile, back at SalvageSale.com, Mr Parsley is hard at work trying to develop links with online transportation companies in order to continue pursuing the business to business holy grail - thereby creating a global marketplace for buyers and sellers.
"I love the job because every transaction is different. I call them salvage tales. Every deal is different", he says.
He believes, however, that despite its apparently unglamorous nature, SalvageSale.com is a solid B2B internet venture.
The site is achieving levels of more than 65,000 hits a day, and merchandise - unless it is too obscure to be sold at all - goes within an average of 14 days.
SalvageSale takes a commission of between 10% and 12.5% on transactions, which typically have a value of $50,000.
But although SalvageSale believes it will make a success of its venture, the salvage market also demonstrates many of the difficulties the business to business sector is beginning to encounter.
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