Some correct answers here, but I think an example would help things make sense.
If you sign up with an internet provider, and then you get, say, Disney+ through them, you are the first party, your ISP is the second party, and Disney+ is the third party. The first party’s money goes through the second party to get to the third party.
Because it follows the rules of grammar for pronouns and subject of verbs.
First person – I and we.
Second person — You.
Third person — He / she / it / they.
People use the term third party service to refer generically to a service offered by someone else (he, she, they). Although I have never heard the term “second party service,” I have heard the term second party when referring to a contract (where I am the first party and you are the second party).
Edit to add – not sure if there is anyway to ELI5. It drove me nuts in elementary school they my 4th grade teacher told us about first and third person, but would not (could not) tell me about the second person. It seemed so illogical. It wasn’t until I took a foreign language in 7th grade that a teacher could finally explain what the second person was. Not sure if this is an indictment on English teachers in the US generally since I went to a demonstrably good school or if elementary school kids can only handle first and third person, but not second person.
Your mum does your laundry for you. Your mum is number one in this arrangement (obvs), and you’re number two. Any time your talking to your mum about laundry, she’s 1 and you’re 2.
I run a detergent company. I want to sell you some detergent. Now in our discussion, your mum isn’t involved (I expect she’s loading the washing machine), just me and you. So now you’re number one, and I’m number two. When you mention your mum, she’s number 3, the third party that you contract with for your laundry services, but that’s only in our discussion. When you get home, you’ll realise your mum is number 1.
You’ll tell her you got a great deal, the best deal ever, on this detergent you bought. She’ll ask who you got it from, and now because I’m not part of this discussion, I become number 3 again, just some third party that isn’t either of you two champions.
When your mum realises the detergent sucks, she might come to me for a refund, and I’ll tell her to go away, she’s just some third party to this arrangement. Only first or second parties can sort out their arrangements, not third parties.
1st party: The customer who has a problem that needs a solution (e.g.: You with a desire to be entertained)
2nd party: The company that provides a solution (e.g.: Nintendo builds a gaming console and makes games)
3rd party: Some other company that adds to that (e.g.: Capcom releases their own games for Nintendo’s console)
a business final customer can be people (the customer) or other business, that is known as b2c (business-to-customer) or b2b (business-to-business), so the business is the 1st party and the final customer is the 2nd party of this relationship, but business usually don’t produce all of their resources by itself, so they make deals with other business for supplies, services or collaboration, and as they are not their final customer, they are call the 3rd party in the whole relationship.
eli5: cocacola (1st party) sells coke to you (2nd party), but they need water and other resources to make it, so they buy it from others suppliers (3rd party)
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