A simple definition of a portal describes it simply as a gateway, and a Web portal as a gateway to a
corporate intranet or to the Internet. In this paper we will compare a number of differing views of what
constitutes a portal, and offer a definition of our own. There are also several different categorisations used
to describe the various types of portal. In this paper we begin with one that considers only two: horizontal
or public portals and vertical (corporate or enterprise) portals. This done, in the main part of the paper we
review the literature on business models for horizontal portals and describe one consisting of players,
strategies and content.