Many buyers on the Internet routinely use shopbots—software agents, such as those deployed by Evenbetter.com and mySimon.com, that automatically canvass the Internet looking for the cheapest price for a given product. Now e-businesses are deploying agents of their own. The on-line retailer Buy.com, for example, is reportedly using price-comparison software that automatically adjusts its prices to undercut competitors’ prices. But if all on-line sellers deploy armies of such pricebots, would the result be self-destructive cyber price wars and digital mayhem?
A version of this article appeared in the July–August 2000 issue of Harvard Business Review.
