One-to-one

One-to-one in communication is the act of an individual communicating with another individual. In Internet terms, this can be done by e-mail but the most typical one-to-one communication in the Internet is instant messaging as it does not consider many-to-many communication such as a chat room as an essential part of its scope (however, this may be disputed as instant messaging includes announcing presence information, which may be considered a part of a many-to-many communication system).

"One-to-One" also referred to the business movement during Web 1.0 which leveraged database technology for targeting products, ads, and services to specific users with particular profile attributes. Amazon is a classic example of a company that performs "One-to-One Marketing" by offering users targeted offers and related products. Personalization is the term that later followed as a way of describing this evolution in Internet marketing].