Methods of Information Processing and Presentation in Peer-to-Peer Online Marketplaces: A Review

Introduction

In e-commerce (online and cloud trading platforms, digital commerce websites such as Aliexpress.com, Ebay.com, Avito.ru, etc.), buyers do not have enough information about the products and services provided. In some industries, retail trade has been completely supplanted; offline (retail) trading floors have become essentially pick-up points. Therefore, online marketplaces have the disruptive effect on the traditional trade. Features of the online environment often encourage consumers to take additional risks, e.g. to buy a product or service, having only its virtual representation available. A system of trust is being formed to streamline the virtual interaction of sellers with buyers and stimulate regulations in the purchase / sale, since the usual regulatory mechanisms and rights do not work here (Diekmann & Przepiorka, 2017; Jabeen, 2018; Musial & Lopez-Loces, 2017).

The electronic market in general can break down (degrade) (the theory of the “market of lemons” (Akerlof, 1970)). Such a problem can be eliminated by introducing mechanisms of trust and reputation of buyers and sellers to each other (Adamopoulou & Symeonidis, 2014; Dellarocas, 2003; Gomrokchi, 2009; Neystadt, 2018; Wang & Wang, n.d.; Yan & Holtmanns, 2008).The following problems arise during the introduction and implementation of trust systems:

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  to what extent the trust mechanisms will be socially fair (Hoff & Bashir, 2015) ;

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  what risks exist when using them, what are the possible abuses and vulnerabilities and how to protect against them (Dellarocas, 2004) ;

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  how trust indicators change dynamically in different environments (Zacharia et al., 2000) ;

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  how to present the factors used by people to make trust in real life and how to collect data to automate the decision of placing the trust onto new subjects (Balaji et al., 2017).

The chapter provides an overview of the ways of presenting and processing information in the systems of reputation and trust that function on online trading sites on the social networks of the Internet.

Social Network As An Information And Communication Platform For Online Trading

A social network is a structure consisting of a set of agents (users) and a set of relations between them - a set of connections between agents. Agent - subject / node / user, understood as an independent source of information. A social network of the Internet (online social network) is a platform, an online service, or a website designed to build, reflect, and organize social relationships between agents (Social networks and virtual network communities, 2013).

Online Social Network is considered in this work as an information and communication infrastructure supporting the electronic trading platform (ETP). ETP allows to combine suppliers and consumers of goods and services in a single infocommunication and trading space and provides ETP participants with services that increase the efficiency of their business, that is (Adamopoulou & Symeonidis, 2014; Dellarocas, 2003; Gomrokchi, 2009; Neystadt, 2018; Wang & Wang, n.d.; Yan & Holtmanns, 2008):

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  to receive information on the organization of interest working on the ETP;

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  to search for buyers and consumers of goods and services that are placed on the platform and in the network;

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  to advertise their products in a large-scale virtual information space;

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  to implement a system of trade and procurement activities;

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  to analyze various activity indicators of organizations in the topics of interest;

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  to implement secure electronic document flow between users of the platform.