Exploring products and services in cyberspace: towards a categorisation

In the physical world, products and services are traditionally distinguished from each other on the basis of tangibility and intangibility; indeed, services are often described as intangible products. This distinction has governed the design and management of both. In the virtual world of the fixed and mobile Internet, however, this distinction is no longer appropriate: both products and services become intangible. This is essentially due to the fact that the Internet is not merely a technology but represents an entirely new medium for conducting business, a fact that has been overlooked by many of the early entrants into this space. This medium is defined by information and fundamentally different from the physical space where business has traditionally been conducted. Consequently, products and services require a different conceptualisation. In this paper we focus on business-to-consumer (B2C) markets and explore consumer products and services in cyberspace.