now located on the "transaction-complete" page for more than 1,700 merchants on the Web. Buyers describe their purchase experience and BizRate.com posts the findings to an online guide. AOL makes all of its merchants participate in the service to keep customer satisfaction high.
The detailed reports that result from this process would make most Net researchers drool. But Farhad Mohit, CEO of BizRate.com, isn't really focused on making a splash in the research industry. Instead, Mohit hopes to morph BizRate.com into one of the first infomediaries: a trusted intermediary which guards its members' privacy while sharing purchase-intent data with vendors and doing deals between them.
"The important thing about an infomediary is that it's centered around protecting a user's privacy," says Mohit.
"The way the world works right now is that you have supply running after demand, and supply doesn't know who wants this stuff. When demand coagulates and presents itself to supply, it is much more efficient. We're creating an efficiency in the marketplace that is a win-win."
Jon Hagel III, a McKinsey principal and coauthor of Net Worth, which introduced the infomediary concept, is apprehensive about BizRate.com's chances. "It is very unlikely that one company is going to pull this off, specifically on the market-research front," says Hagel.
But BizRate.com's investors are convinced: The firm closed a $20 million second round of financing in May.
Says Hagel: "At least companies like BizRate.com start with a more balanced proposition to both customers and vendors compared to research companies that simply help vendors better market their products."
