Application of P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to marketing

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks are spreading, and their practical applications for the business scene are promising. However, the essence of P2P is missed by broad interpretations that do not make it a problem whether to use P2P technology. Incidentally, although marketing activity currently consists mainly of Web pages or mail, it is difficult to actively find latent customers from the company side, and it is not necessarily an effective marketing means for a small-scale company. Therefore, in this paper, we discuss the application of P2P technology to marketing. First, the essence of P2P is correctly extracted by focusing on the state of the information that changes within a P2P network, and effective fields in business are clarified. Next, by paying attention to characteristics of P2P that have not yet been adequately developed in business, we have recognized that P2P marketing is promising from now on. We devise five models for applying P2P networks to the marketing field (P2P marketing), and clarify P2P´s marketing features through comparisons with existing Internet marketing. Consequently, we reveal features not currently held by Web pages or mail.