But Joel Ronning refuses to be pinned down by any of those categories. Ronning, CEO of Digital River, says he is creating an entirely new business model for the Internet--one that encompasses all the familiar labels and adds a few other ingredients to the stew.
His preferred term for the Digital River business model: commerce service provider.
"Each of those terms describes a little of what we do, but it's not the whole picture," Ronning says. "For example, a hosting company will host someone's store, but not actually run it. We will step in and not only host someone's store, we'll design it, run it, market it and handle all transactions--everything that goes into making a Web site successful."
It's a proposition that appears to be gaining traction, particularly as companies re-evaluate their Internet strategies in light of the economic downturn. Rather than make a big investment in their own infrastructure, many companies are outsourcing pieces of their operations. Eventually, some come to the conclusion that the entire operation can be run cheaper, and possibly better, by an outside service provider.
That's exactly the conclusion Major League Baseball came to earlier this month, when it signed a deal to have Digital River host and operate the league's main Web site, as well as run stores for each of the organisation's 30 clubs.
Noah Garden, senior vice president of electronic commerce at MLB Advanced Media, a unit created by the league to oversee its Internet initiatives, says it was a decision based on timing and economics. When he joined the company two months ago, he quickly realised he would have to go on a major spending spree to build up the unit's capabilities to ensure it could meet both his growth plans and demands for reliability and uptime.
"Rather than build out our infrastructure, I decided I wanted to focus more on what we do best--building our brand," Garden says.
Terms of the deal were not released, but Digital River will operate stores offering more than 6,000 baseball-related products, including team jerseys, hats, outerwear and memorabilia. It also will operate and market an entirely new line of business--subscriptions to game-day audio broadcasts.
