Customer to Customer (C2C)

Customer to Customer (C2C) is a business model in which individual consumers transact directly with other individual consumers — buying, selling, or exchanging goods, services, or information — typically facilitated by an intermediary online platform that provides the marketplace infrastructure, payment processing, and trust mechanisms without directly owning the inventory or providing the service itself. Prominent C2C platforms globally include eBay and Craigslist; in India, OLX, Quikr, and second-hand vehicle marketplaces operate on C2C models. In financial markets, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms — where individual lenders lend directly to individual borrowers without a bank intermediary — are a form of financial C2C commerce regulated by RBI under its NBFC-P2P framework. For investors on Ventura Securities tracking India's digital commerce and fintech ecosystem, C2C platforms represent a distinct and capital-light business model segment — their valuation is driven by gross merchandise value (GMV), take rate, and the strength of the network effects that make the platform more valuable as participant numbers grow.