This IDC study describes the two scenarios IDC's Digital Marketplace Model and Simulator forecasts for the Internet economy. It examines the roles that retailers, search engines, advertisers, and content providers will play in ecommerce.

"The digital marketplace is a new commercial environment that requires new technologies, new marketing strategies, new licensing and distribution approaches," said Susan Feldman, IDC's VP for search and digital marketplace technologies. "It affords players access to a global market comprising innumerable micromarkets. IDC's digital marketplace simulations will improve our understanding of online market dynamics."