A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. Currently, all major browsers (including Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 7) support RSS technology, which enables readers to easily read recent posts.
There are 2 types of corporate blogs:
1. Internal blog - generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view. Many blogs are also communal, allowing anyone to post to them. The informal nature of blogs may encourage:
· employee participation
· free discussion of issues
· collective intelligence
· direct communication between various layers of an organization
· a sense of community
2. External blog - is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services (or the end of old products), to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues.
Advantages of corporate blogging:
(1)Leaders can communicate directly with customers, suppliers and investors, as well as employees, helping disseminate and explain strategy.
(2)Compared with conference or printed memos to all staff, enterprise blogs are highly cost effective.
(3)Sharing ideas freely in an honest voice brings the blogging companies new connections and generate trust which will lead to business opportunities galore.
(4)Blogging establish those corporation that updated consistently as a thought leader in their industry.
Challenges in corporate blogging includes :
(1)Hard to measure success: Marketers measure campaign success through visits and registrations. The problem with blogs is that social software success could take the form of comments, trackbacks, and qualitative intangibles. With management looking for those raw numbers, how does one succeed?
(2)Legal problems: Two way dialogs that allows objective and negative content is scary for legal. Furthermore, how do corporations react to colleagues that may look like they are making promises on behalf of the company?
(3)No ending date: Blogs aren’t marketing campaigns, there is no ending flight. Bad blogs may whimper along for months, great ones will also continue on. So, at what point does one stop?
(4)May require a lot of time: The biggest cost in blogging is not money, but it is the time. When this comes to executives, the cost per hour may radically increases. For an example, an executive may need to spend 1-2 hours every morning to manage the blog.
6 most popular corporate blogs:
1. Google
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Corporate Blogging - A new marketing communication tool for companies.
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Additional link:A review on a post on Legal from My E-Commerce blog
UK to get tough with illegal downloader is one of the posts that I had reviewed. Then, is it UK very successful in tough with illegal downloader?
A draft consultation suggests internet service providers (ISPs) would be required to take action over users who access pirated material via their accounts. However, the government is stressing that plans are at an early stage and it is still working on final proposals. And the government proposals were first reported by the Times newspaper.
Based on The Times said, “People who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new legislative proposals to be unveiled next week.” Actually it is balderdash and the fact initiated that this nutty proposal is getting anywhere at all illustrates how ignorant the powers that be are about downloading.
Five reasons that Why Illegal Downloaders Will Not Face a UK Ban as follows:
1. This proposal was a draft consultation green paper, defined as “a proposal without any commitment to action.” The government receives many of these on a daily basis. So, there were being ignored.
2. This proposal is unworkable in the real world. ISPs no liability as the content is not hosted on their services, and it would be impossible for them to open and check whether the every single download and upload was legal or not without the entire Internet grinding to halt. There is no interest for the government, ISPs or the voters as exposing yourself to billions in liability and that is not a good business strategy.
3. Impossible and difficult to differentiate between illegal downloading and legal activities such as downloading software patches, using torrents to share stuff legally, playing online video games, telecommuting, and many others. The resistance from the private sector would be as strong as it would from the general public.
4. This idea against the ruling of the European Court, which says EU member states are not obligated to disclose personal information about suspected file sharers. It would fly in the face of Article 10 of the European freedom of expression laws which initiate every European the “freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”
5. WiFi piggybacking and encrypted packets make it impossible to tell who is downloading what in the first place. These techniques are only getting more sophisticated, while for the most part, the content industries collectively remain as dumb as a box of hair.
UK to get tough with illegal downloader
U2 manager wants illegal downloaders blacklisted
Review A Local E-Commerce Site
E-commerce has available in Malaysia for a long period. Nowadays,e-commerce is very commom, but still a lot of people do not use e-commerce service. There are still lots of sucessful e-commerce websites built in Malaysia because there provide many conveniance service to consumer. Let us go through a few of local e-commerce site,
Maxis has become popular in malaysia. It does not only operation when it is offline, it also can let people know information about maxis or their own account detail through the internet. 
Broadband Internet
Apply for services
You can request for a new or supplementary line for your family or to your friends.Beside that, you can do your replacement if you make lost your SIM card or hav faulty.You can subscribe online for a host of Maxis value-added services that put you in control of your communication needs.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer particiapting in an e-auction
Auctions have been around for centuries. People with goods wanted an efficient way to sell those goods to people who wanted those goods. Historically, the highest level of technology used for an auction involved plugging a microphone into a wall.
But nowadays, the Internet becomes more popular than paperless catalog. The Internet could be used to expand the universe of potential buyers for any one item. It could be used by buyers to compare goods more efficiently and accurately. Anyone could enjoy an auction from a comfortable seat at anytime, anywhere.
The online auction proved to be a great application of technology for those wishing to sell products and services. Traditionally, the auction represented the seller and involved one seller to many buyers. Auctions helped drive up prices for the seller But now auctions could be used to represent the buyer and help drive prices down.
Over the years, various auction formats were devised and executed, including the most well-known format, the e-auction (which also called reverse auction). E-auction is a repetitive process involving an electronic device for the presentation of new prices, revised downwards, or new values concerning certain elements of tenders, which occurs after an initial full evaluation of the tenders, enabling them to be ranked using automatic evaluation methods. The examples of e-auction are: lelong.com, ebay.com, Yahoo and other.
The type of e-auction fraud
- Bid shielding: The practice of placing a low bid in an online auction and having a second person enter a bid that is high enough to discourage other bidders. At the last second, the high bid is retracted and the low bid wins. This fraud is performed by the buyers.
- Shilling: Placing fake bids on auction items to increase the bidding price. It is far harder to detect on the Internet, where anonymity and easy-to-shed electronic identities make it easy for a seller to single-handedly a shilling without tipping off a legitimate bidder.
- Improper grading techniques
- Selling reproductions
- Failure to pay
Ways to prevent e-auction's fraud
- Escrow service
- a licensed and regulated company that collects, holds, and sends a buyer's money to a seller according to instructions agreed on by both the buyer and seller. Typically, once th e buyer receives and approves the item from the seller within an agreed time fra me, the escrow service then sends the payment to the seller.
- If you are a buyer or a seller and, you should only use Escrow.com to make the payment, for example, eBay's approved escrow service.
There are fraudulent escrow services, so be caution if a seller suggests using a service other than escrow. - To avoid being deceived by fraudulent emails, you should sign in to www.escrow.com to verify information you have received via email. Make sure you type the entire address. Do not let the browser auto-type the site address for you. It could auto-type a fraudulent address
2. Feedback Forum
- a place where you can express your opinions by leaving Feedback on your transactions. Besides that, you can learn about your trading partners and viewing their reputations. These member-to-member ratings and comments can help the millions of buyers and sellers. A very good example was in Ebay’s feedback forum,
- For each transaction, buyers and sellers can rate each other by leaving Feedback. Each feedback consists of a positive, negative, or neutral rating, and a short comment.A buyer can also rate the seller on additional criteria which are the accuracy of item description, communication, shipping time, and shipping and handling charges. Sellers can't tell which buyer left which detailed rating, so buyers can feel free to leave ratings that honestly tell the story about their experience.
3. Authentication service
- determining whether an item listed in an e-auction site is genuine and described appropriately and correctly. Usually done by experts who are knowledgeable about certain products. E-bay offers this service to authenticate some of the items listed in e-bay.
- public or private service that authenticates the identity of an online applicant for a TreasuryDirect account using information provided by the applicant. For example, e-bay authentication and grading services
related links:
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Electronic currency
Electronic money (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic currency, digital money, digital cash or digital currency) refers to money which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer network, the internet and digital stored value systems. On the other hand,electronic currency includes electronic fund transfer,direct deposit,paystone technology, pay loadz, big pass, first gate’s click and buy, pepper point and so on.
Let us look at a few an examples of electronic currency
Electronic Funds Transfer is an electronic payment method that you use to pay your tax liabilities. Besid
e that, it is a safe and efficient process for making tax payments. All transactions are governed by strict, nationally established security procedures and occur between financial institutions only at your request.
Federation of Tax Administrators (FTA)
Nowadays, consumers are convenient to use online payment on the internet. No sign up fee, no monthly fee, no fee to buy online and easy to load funds from the comfort of your own home.On the other hand,no fraudulent credit card charge backs and you control your refund policy and easy cash out process and so on.
Paystone provides secure, quick online and is an inexpensive online payment method without the risk of charge backs from fraudulent credit card use.Paystone can efficiently handle small financial transactions (micropayments) as low as $0.25. The ability to process micropayments opens a whole new world for entrepreneurs of all sizes.Paystone also provides an email money transfer option.Beside that,a Paystone account holder can send funds to the email address of anyone in many countries around the world.
On the other hand,Pay loadz provide a service to sell download able items such as software, eBooks, music, movies, digital art, manuals, articles, certificates, forms, files, and anything else that can be downloaded.
It will automated delivery of your digital goods immediately after payment.Consumer can get it easily because it sells anywhere online, your own site, our Store, eBay and more.
Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies
Mobile payment is a rapidly-adopting alternative payment method, especially in Asia and Europe. Instead of paying with cash, cheques or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for wide range of services and digital or hard goods such as music, ringtones, online games, transportation fare, books and others.There are four primary models for mobile payments:
- Premium SMS based transactional payments: This is where the consumer sends a payment request via an SMS text message to a shortcode and extra premium will be charged against the phone bill.
- Direct Mobile Billing: This is where the consumer uses mobile billing option to check at an e-commerce site such as an online gaming site to make a payment. After two-factor authentication, the consumer's mobile account is charged for the purchase.
- Mobile web payments (WAP) :This is where the consumer uses web pages displayed or additional application had been downloaded and installed on his mobile phone to make a payment. It uses WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) as underlying technology.
- Contactless NFC (Near Field Communication): It is used mostly in paying for purchases made in physical stores or transportation services. A consumer uses a special mobile phone equipped with a smartcard near a phone reader module.
Cash payments in Malaysia still account for a large portion of the number of transactions in the economy. The increased use of cards is an international trend and is expected to gain significance in Malaysia. Credit cards, ATM cards, debit cards including the e-purse application embedded in the MyKad are among the card payments possibilities in Malaysia. Giro transfers, other credit transfers and direct debit are also gaining significance by both individuals and businesses. Finally, Internet banking has also begun to experience stronger growth. There are several merchants of mobile payments such as Maybank, BNM, and some more.
MM wallet is one of mobile payment systems in Malaysia. It is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed by Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd. It unlocks the function of the mobile phone to make payments, allowing registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere by using only a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS (Short Messaging Service). This gives the freedom to shoppers to buy products online and pay the merchant using his mobile phone without physically present at the store.
In order to pay using Mobile Money, a shopperor consumer must have either a savings, current or credit card account with the participating banks. It functions like a Credit Card if a shopper applies for a "Pay by Mobile Phone" credit card account e.g. Hong Leong Mobile Credit Card. The shopper will be billed by the bank accordingly by month's end. In addition, it functions as a Debit Card if it is tied to shopper's savings or current account. The amount will be deducted instantly from the account upon successful transaction.
Related links: benefits Mobile Money has to offer to merchant
how Mobile Money works and interact with our online storefront solution
The Application of Pre-paid Cash Card for Consumers
First minded for prepaid cash card, there is not much different with the credit card. However, the major differences in using the credit card is the consumers will spend uncontrollable as they can pay the debts after make the transactions which similar like spend money in advance. There are a lot of cases those consumers unable to pay the debts when meet the due date, then the amounts owing plus the penalty, consumers choose to escape from their liabilities.
Spending under control
It is an easier way to track spending and with the ability to limit the amount for spend since it is depending on the amount in the account. The account activity can be monitored online to help keep within a budget. The balance can be checked or loaded with additional funds online or over the phone.
Safety can be ensured if comparing with carry large amount of hand cash especially when want go for a travelling. There must have the security of sign for every purchase, so difficult for a thief to use your card. If the card is ever lost or stolen, just cancel it with a simple phone call. Consumer can replace it by apply again but the cash will be lost forever if stolen.
Ubiguity
It can be used anywhere at any time. As a conclusion, it provides convenient to the consumers all the time. Consumers can use it at their groceries shopping, petrol filling, utilities payment, movie tickets, airline tickets, download songs online, mobile phone bill, fast food or restaurant and even online shopping or any online payment. Nevertheless, it can be used to withdraw cash from the ATM.
No extra charges
It provides convenience of using a card to make payments without using credit or incurring interest charges. Consumers no need to worry about extra charges over their card without their knowing since the pre-loaded sum of money is the maximum amount that can be charged to the card.
Prizes and rewards
Competition is very high nowadays and caused the banks offered all sorts of attractive prizes and rewards in order to attract more consumers to apply a prepaid cash card. By an example, the launch of point-collection system as consumers spend more and more points can they collect, better chance they stand on winning prizes.
Different banks have offered different offers, so that select the pre-paid card that suits you, and apply online.
Related links:
http://www.startecredit.com/creditpages/prepaid-credit-cards-applications-prerpaid-reloadable-credit-cards.htm
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/143565/credit_cards/prepaid_debit_card_offers_are_they_right_for_you.html
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/cards/prepaid-cards-guide1.asp
Credit Card Debts - Causes & Prevention
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Recently, we live in a world where debt is not only acceptable, it is the norm. Almost everyone we meet has debt of some kind. So, in a society that views debt as a way of life, how can we control our debt instead of allowing it to control us? Here are some steps to help you with credit card debts prevention:
· Know Your Interest Rate - If you’re going to use a credit card, regardless if you pay the balance in full each month, you need to know the interest rate. In addition, check the rate on your monthly statements because credit card issuers can raise your rates for little or no apparent reason and with little warning.
· Limit the Plastic in Your Wallet - Having a wallet full of plastic can make it tough to keep track of how much you owe on each , which can spell trouble when it is time to pay your statements as every credit card comes with its own set of terms and conditions·
· Poor Money Management - Not having a monthly spending plan and not keeping track of the monthly bills makes people unaware of where their money is going. They might be spending hundreds of dollars every month towards items that are useless and have no value in their life. While their money is going towards purchasing useless items, they might also be charging their necessary purchases on credit card, forcing them to pay interest on these purchases every month.
· Saving too little or not at all - The simplest way to avoid unwanted debt is to prepare for unexpected expenditures by saving three to six months of living expenses. With a savings cushion in place, a job layoff, illness or divorce will not cause immediate financial strain and increase debt.
· Financial illiteracy - Many people don't understand how money works and grows, how to save and invest for a rainy day, or even why they should balance their checkbook. The schools don't teach it or parents may not have sat their children down and explained it. It doesn't matter. We are responsible for our life and our money anyway.
· Reduced income/same expenses - Too often we delay bringing expenses in line with a reduction in income for a host of good reasons and let debt fill the gap. The sooner you adjust to your new reality, whether it be temporary or permanent, the better off you'll be.
Related links:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debt_manage_2004/top-10-causes.asp
http://www.3debtconsolidation.com/top10-causes.html
http://www.cardratings.com/howtoavoidcreditcarddebt.html
http://www.itsahabit.com/
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/debt-prevention-tips-1267.php
Saturday, February 7, 2009
How to safeguard our personal & financial data?
…? - Use and maintain anti-virus software - Protect your computer against viruses and Trojan horses that may steal or modify the data on your own computer by using anti-virus software .
- Regularly scan your computer for spyware - Use a legitimate anti-spyware program to scan your computer and remove any software programs that may affect the performance of your computer and give attackers access to your data.
- Avoid unused software programs - Do not clutter your computer with unnecessary software programs. If you have programs on your computer that you do not use, consider uninstalling them.
- Consider creating separate user accounts - If there are other people using your computer, they may accidentally access, modify, or delete your files.. Most operating systems have the option of creating a different user account for each user, and you can set the amount of access and privileges for each account.
- Establish guidelines for computer use - If there are multiple people using your computer, make sure they understand how to use the computer and internet safely. Setting boundaries and guidelines will help to protect your data.
- Use passwords and encrypt sensitive files - Passwords and other security features add layers of protection if used appropriately. By encrypting files, you ensure that unauthorized people can't view data even if they can physically access it. When you use encryption, it is important to remember your passwords or else you may lose your data.
Besides that, before submitting your name, email address, or other personal information on a web site, look for the site's privacy policy. This policy should state how the information will be used and whether or not the information will be distributed to other organizations. Companies sometimes share information with partner vendors who offer related products or may offer options to subscribe to particular mailing lists.
Additional steps to protect your privacy:
- Do not use your primary email address in online submissions -Submitting your email address could result in spam. If you do not want your primary email account flooded with unwanted messages, consider opening an additional email account for use online.
- Avoid submitting credit card information online - Some companies offer a phone number you can use to provide your credit card information. Although this does not guarantee that the information will not be compromised, it eliminates the possibility that attackers will be able to hijack it during the submission process.
- Avoid using debit cards for online purchases - Credit cards usually offer some protection against identity theft and may limit the monetary amount you will be responsible for paying. However, debit cards do not offer that protection because the charges are immediately deducted from your account, an attacker who obtains your account information may empty your bank account before you can realize it.
5 free personal financial software-http://mount-kinabalu-borneo.com/blog/5-free-personal-financial-software-for-you.html
Understanding anti-virus software - http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-005.html
Understanding firewall - http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-004.html
Choosing & protecting passwords - http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-002.html
Phishing:Examples and Its Prevention Methods
We are always heard about phishing, but what does that means?
Phishing is a type of deception (usually made through e-mail, instant message) to steal personal data such as credit card numbers, password.
Before we discuss further, let us look at how the stages the attackers does while executing a phishing attack.
1. Register a fake domain name [not mandatory]
3. Send email to hundreds of users
Fake Maybank 2u Portal
Real Maybank 2u Portal
Real Maybank 2u Portal
Example of phishing that message from yahoo
1. Learn how to recognize phishing
ii)"Verify your account."Businesses should not ask you to send passwords, login names, or other personal information through e-mail.
v) Read the URLs from right to left. The real domain name is at the end of the URL.
2. Install online anti-phishing software in user's computers Anti-phishing tools uses certain rules in their software, and checks a security of a Web site according to these rules. http://www.anti-phishing.info/anti-phishing-freeware.htm
4. Do not click links in emails. If in doubt, close your browser, reopen it, and type the web address for the site you want to visit directly into the Address bar.
The threats of online security.: How Safe is Our Data?
Introduction
Internet is about communication, and communication is inherently public. The privacy and security of consumer information to be two major issues that stem from the rapid growth in e-commerce, particularly in terms of consumer-related commerce on the Internet. In the last couple of years, by exploiting poorly secured legitimate websites, hackers have been able to plant the malicious code onto them, which then attempts to infect every visitor. One of the reasons the web is so popular is that legitimate websites can attract large numbers of visitors, all of whom are a potential victim. Many well known organizations and brands have fallen victim to this kind of attack during 2008. According to the some studies, one new infected Web page is discovered every 4.5 seconds. The examples are: In March 2008, a site selling tickets for the Euro 2008 football championship was hacked; in September 2008, Business Week magazine was infected with an SQL injection attack that attempted to download malware from a Russian-based server. In October 2008: An area of the Adobe website designed to offer support to video bloggers was compromised by an SQL injection attack.
The major online security attacks fall under several general categories: and accidental actions and malicious attacks.
Accidental actions
This category include the problems arising from basic lack of knowledge about online security concepts and includes such the issues like poor password choices, accidental or erroneous business transactions and accidental disclosure.Related problems occur as a result of misconfigured security products and information leakage resulting from insecure information transfers. Education and prudence are considered as key defenses in limiting the frequency and extent of such events, since this form of cyber vulnerability avoidable.
Malicious attacks
Attacks that specifically aim to do harm are known as malicious attacks. They can be further broken down into attacks caused by malicious code and those caused by intentional misrepresentation. . Malicious code, on the other hand, is some sort of malware that can directly or indirectly affect the online security. It include computer viruses, data theft, and Denial of Service (DOS) attacks.
How to protect our data?
We should communicate only with people and Web sites we trust, while making it as difficult as possible for people we aren't addressing to listen in. We need to secure our computers, control our outbound traffic, encrypt our information and protect our identity.Ultimately, the biggest security threats to your online privacy are your own bad habits. As computers become more connected and more information is stored online, it becomes even more critical that we follow good password practices. That means no pet names, no names of children or favorite sports teams either—and certainly don't make your password "password" it's the first thing hackers check. To learn to make stronger passwords, try a few of your favorites at Password Meter, a Web utility that tests the strength of your passwords as you type them in and rates their security.
Passwords, firewalls and spyware checkers will form a bulwark around your computer, but just as fences, locks and security systems would not keep out a determined burglar, somehow these digital strategies can also fail. So, the best defense is to encrypt your drive. Encryption algorithms are the same sort of stuff that protects top-secret government documents and corporate trade secrets. The open-source TrueCrypt encryption software is free for download and can encrypt files. You should also make sure to encrypt your Wi-Fi router. Choose WPA encryption if your router has the option. This is far more secure than the older WEP option. This will reasonably guarantee that the only person accessing your network is you.
related links: Chinese hackers- No site is safe
Defense officials still concerned about data lost in 2007 network attack
Online security threat always present
A review on a post on Internet Security from My E-Commerce blog
Actually, there are not only three tactics in realistic. For examples, Medication Spam, Replica Item Spam, Software Spam, Bank Phishing, Images Spam and others.
Spamming
Spam is defined as unsolicited bulk messages sent through the electronic messaging systems. However, how the senders get the email address? They can get it through the name card, website and search engine. There become the easier ways for get the contact and send out the junk e-mail.
Types of spam
Among of the forms of spam, e-mail spam is most widely being recognized which known as junk e-mail. Its term also applied to similar abuses in other media, there are included instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, Online classified ads spam and file sharing network spam.
Spamming Tactics
The spamming tactics is recognized by the spammers who create electronic spam in order to outsmart the anti-spam software. The anti spam software is used and helps to reduce the influx of the unsolicited e-mails.
From the post, the new tactics are PDF Spam, Piggyback Spam and Greeting Card Spam. As a conclusion from related spams, if realize the e-mails are sent by an unknown person or suspended infected by viruses, the best solution is choosing delete it immediately and not encouraged to open it. Sometimes, when you click links, it may actually lead to a downloaded file which in turn may install malware or spyware.
Recommendations
I want to highligh and recommend a company that has provide a very good of antispam solution for the hosting client which is TCPAccess Dot Com.
TCPAccess Dot Com is proudly to announce new TCPAccess Premium Mail Protection solution in handle the problem of spam mails. The solution above is monitor by our staff daily and round the clock to detect latest spam mail. By multi-level filtering method, help clients to reduce the number of spam mail received by 98% and the staffs showed very high performance in their duties.
News -Spam Volumes Drop by Two-Thirds After Firm Goes Offline
According to the CBL-observed Effects of the McColo Outage, the Internet hosting company McColo Corporation was disconnected (by its Internet access providers) from the Internet on November 11 at approximately 21:30 hours GMT. Many people working in anti-spam/malware/phish were well aware of the issues being tracked back to McColo. They knew the magnitude of these issues, and could make reasonably sound theoretical predictions of what would happen if McColo was disconnected.
The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide plummeted after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations engaged in spam activity was taken offline. In accord with the experts said, the precipitous drop-off in spam comes from Internet providers unplugging McColo Corporation, a hosting provider in Northern California that was the home base for machines responsible for coordinating the sending of roughly 75 percent of all spam each day.Related links:
Saturday, January 31, 2009
An Example of An E-Commerce failures and its causes
Boo.com was an example of an E-Commerce failure.It was a British Internet company founded by Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin. Boo.com launched in the Autumn of 1999 selling branded fashion apparel over the Internet; however, after spending $135 million of venture capital in just 18 month, which later was placed into receivership in 18 May 2000.
The causes of failure are timing and problem with the user experience. From the day it launched technology was a problem for the online clothes retailer. In fact, it was supposed to launch in May 1999 but technical hitches delayed the unveiling. The site was heavily relied on JavaScript and Flash technology, but as that time it was very slow to load the webpage. In this circumstance, it took vast majority users to wait minutes for the page to load. Another thing is the fixed size window required to display the complicated, which limited space available to display product information to customer.
Beside that, Boo.com to market itself as a global company and it had to deal different languages, pricing and tax structures in countries it served. Boo.com was spent £125 million in just six months because of these activities. The most important thing are their sales wasn’t up to their expectation, especially have a high numbers of customer returned products to them.
Related links: 10 epic website failure
History & Evolution of E-commerce
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce , consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet.
The commercial-oriented sharing of electronic data among computers become achievable in the 1950s with the appear of geographically dispersed computers. However, highly specialized data formats were used, the software applications of a certain producer were not able to communicate with the applications of another producer. In other words, data exchange between the computers that were not running the same software application were hindered.
Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) was the first expanded use of a form of electronic commerce appeared in the early 1970s. This enabled banks and financial institutions to transfer large amounts of money either among themselves or with associated businesses.
In the late 1970s Electronic Data Exchange (EDI) was introduced. EDI enables inter-company exchanges of documents, such as order forms for suppliers, invoices, customs forms, stock inventories etc. This has reduced costs both on the producers’ side and on the distributors’ side. Whereas, the high costs of its implementation and the difficulty of making the various versions of EDI fully compatible causes EDI not largely use in the market.
In the late 1980s electronic mail (e-mail) and groupware were widely use in the business world.The two systems were considered a major breakthrough when they first introduced.
When public allowed access to the internet in 1991 a significant change for e-commerce occurred. The internet provides several advantages over its competitors. First, this opened the possibility of accessing huge new markets for every business thinkable. Second, compatibility problems did not exist in the internet, the transfer control protocol / internet protocol (TCP/IP) is the generally accepted standard protocol.
The internet was quickly accepted in business once opened for commercial utilization, internet-related business prosper and the market itself expanded.Recently how to conduct sensible financial transactions on an open access network is the greatest challenge for those companies that run commercial activities through the internet.
The World Wide Web, which appear in the years when the internet was liberalized, rendered e-commerce more accessible and more affordable. The Web provides the internet its user-friendly interface. Ttherefore, the Web has profoundly changed the way the information on the internet organized, presented and accessed.
Instead, the information of the Web consists of a series of documents called web pages which are developed by using the Hypertext Markup language ( HTML). The main characteristic is that it allows the creation of hypertextual links within a web page which let users “jump” directly to another web page or some other information source.
In the early times of the Web, these pages were static documents that consisted only text and images. Currently the content had become more and more attractive. The HTML language lets users embed in the web page different types of “objects”, such as multimedia files, which could be video clips, animation, sound and music.
The Web is a more affordable means of conducting electronic commerce than the EDI. In addition, it enables a wide range of commercial activities.Taking advantages of the low costs involved, many small businesses are now able to compete with big corporations.
History of ecommerce is unthinkable without Amazon and Ebay which were among the first Internet companies to allow electronic transactions. Currently there are 5 largest and most famous worldwide Internet retailers: Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard. According to statistics, the most popular categories of products sold in the World Wide Web are music, books, computers, office supplies and other consumer electronics.
An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes
eBay
History of eBay
eBay headquarters is located at San Jose, California. It launched in September 1995, started as a place to trade collectibles and hard-to-find items. eBay also start meant as a global online marketplace where anyone can buy, sell and trade.
How did eBay get started selling over the Internet?
It is the brainchild of Pierre Omidyar who working as a software developer in Silicon Valley. His wife who interested in her Pez collection becomes the key component that prompted him to do this. Since she was experiencing in related matters, she know it is limited by geographical considerations and also the interval between publications can often run several weeks if not months.
However, all of that was shortened down by used his interest in fragmented markets and efficient marketplaces as a laboratory for what eventually became eBay. He used the auction process as the method for establishing how merchandise is valued and eventually how it is exchanged between buyer and seller.
What does eBay offer online consumers?
eBay is the world's largest online trading community which offered users an opportunity come together in one of the Internet site and be able to buy and trade a wide range of items. Sellers are permitted to list items for sale, meanwhile buyers can bid on items of interest and all eBay users to browse through listed items in a fully automated way. The items are arranged by topics, where each type of auction has its own category. By this, the users easily to find the information what they needed.
eBay has both streamlined and globalized traditional person-to-person trading, which has traditionally been conducted through such forms as garage sales, collectibles shows, flea markets and more, with their web interface. This facilitates easy exploration for buyers and enables the sellers to immediately list an item for sale within minutes of registering. Since company started the service back in 1995, it has received great favor among the population.
What has helped to make eBay as successful as it has been?
It allows people connect with some very fond and special early childhood memories. It could be anything from collecting baseball cards to toy soldiers to Barbie dolls to doll houses, and so forth. It allows people to make that connection and relive a lot of those very vivid and very fond memories that they have from an earlier period of time.
Related link:
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/2127.html?welcome=1213184390
