Passage 2
The impact of e-commerce is happening in phases. In its first phase (1994—1997), e-commerce was about presence: making sure that everybody had a Web site, meeting the demand that every company, large or small, get out there and have at least something on the Internet. People weren’t quite sure why they were doing it, but they knew that they had to have an online presence.
The second phase (1997—2000) of e-commerce was about transactions — buying and selling over digital media. The focus in this phase was on order flow and gross revenue. Some of that was the matching of buyers and sellers who would never have found each other in the past. Some of that was simply taking transactions that would have been done through paper purchase orders and saying that this business was done on the Internet, although the meaning of that change was quite insignificant. But in this phase, the announcements were all about order flow at any cost: why-sell-it-when-you-can-give-it-away business models. As a result, many of the first movers in this phase such as Value America, are either gasping, have gasped their last breath, or are flailing about in a sea of red ink.
Today, e-commerce is entering the third phase (2000-?), with a focus on how the Internet can impact profitability. And profitability is not about increasing gross revenues but rather increasing gross margins. We call this phase e-business, and it includes all the applications and processes enabling a company to service a business transaction. In addition to encompassing e-commerce, e-business includes both front- and back-office applications that form the core of engine for modern business. Thus, e-business is not just about e-commerce transactions or about buying and selling over the Web: it’s the overall strategy of redefining old business models, with the aid of technology, to maximize customer value and profits. To paraphrase Business Week: “Forget B2B and B2C, E-business is about P2P — path to profitability.”
35.The phrase “the first movers” in paragraph 2 most probably means ____.