By Joey Gardiner, 24 May 2001 12:00
NEWS BarclaysB2B.com, the high-profile e-marketplace set up last year by Barclays bank, is ditching its dot-com moniker amid fears it may put off potential customers. The site will quietly drop the 'dot-com' from its name at the start of June, because of the 'negative connotations' the label now carries. Alison Hutchinson, CEO of BarclaysB2B.com, said the move was not merely about following fashion, but about clarity for customers. She said: "Because we're not a dot-com - and I spend a lot of my time explaining this to customers - we thought, let's just drop it." "Obviously, dot-com is not viewed in the same way this year as it was last year, when we launched," she added. BarclaysB2B.com was set up in March 2000 as a £30m joint venture between Barclays and technology providers Oracle and Accenture. Unlike some B2B exchanges, the platform is up and running and Barclays claims over 4,500 firms use the service. However, not everyone was impressed with the re-branding exercise. Nigel Montgomery, research director at analyst house AMR Research, said: "It's amazing how quickly these companies want to jump off these bandwagons - especially considering how quick they are to jump on them in the first place." You can see a video interview with Alison Hutchison in silicon.com's B2B channel.
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