Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

Though small in relation to ecommerce turnover, Internet fraud is serious for the victims and for the reputation of the industry. According to NCL, US Internet fraud losses amounted to $6 million in 2001.

E-tailers are gradually adopting protective measures, though more reasonable charging by credit card processing companies would help. Some 70% of e-merchants adopt address verification systems, 54% follow up with their customers or adopt real-time authorizations, and 43% adopt after-the-fact fraud prevention measures.

Below are some E-auction fraud prevention:

(a) User identity verification—It is a voluntary program which encourages users to supply eBay with information for online verification. It qualifies them for highest level of verification.

(b) Authentication service—It determines whether an item is genuine and described appropriately.

(c) Grading services—It is used to determine physical condition of an item.

(d) Feedback forum—It provides users with ability to comment on their experiences with other individuals.

(e) Insurance policy—eBay offers insurance underwritten by Lloyd’s of London at no cost to eBay users.

(f) Escrow services—Items valued at more than $200, eBay recommends escrow services which require for a fee.

(g) Non-payment punishment—First time nonpayment warning, fourth offense is cause for suspension from auction.

(h) Appraisal services—It use a variety of methods to appraise items such as assessment of authenticity and condition and review of what comparable items have sold for in recent months

(i) Item verification—It is a way of confirming the identity and evaluating the condition of an item.

A review on a post on Legal: New SMS scam

(http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-sms-scam.html)

First and foremost, SMS scam is a crime punishable under Malaysia law.

There are precedents of punitive actions taken against rogue SMS-delivered Content Providers evident from industry regulator MCMC's reprimand against fraudulent operators.

April 9, 2007, MCMC dispatched a letter to Sandip Das, Morten Lundal and Shazali Ramli -- the CEOs of Maxis (Malaysian Mobile Services Sdn Bhd), DiGi and Celcom, respectively -- in response to consumer complaints on fraudulent SMS Mobile Content Services, particularly on the issues of SMS Spoofing and Short Code Masking.

Below is a simple diagram to illustrate the modus operandi how multiple parties are involved in the SMS scam.

Maxis installed the Maxis Anti-Spam Platform. This works as a firewall that blocks out Spam/Hoax SMS based on keyword identification. This firewall stops unsolicited SMS from reaching our customer base.

Since the installation the Anti Spam Platform, an average of a million Spam/Hoax SMS per month have been blocked from reaching our customers. Offenders often look for ways to circumvent the system, and sometimes, some of these messages slip past our Anti-Spam blocking mechanism. Maxis investigate all complaints and add all new Hoax SMS cases to our Anti-Spam Platform’s database for future auto-blocking.

In the meantime, Maxis advice their customers do not respond to any unsolicited SMS that offer “too good to be true” prizes for contests or promotions from established Malaysian companies, especially if you did not sign up for such contests or promotions in the first place. Usually, these SMS feature a foreign phone number for the recipient to respond to, with a non-Malaysian telephone country code prefix. This is one indication that such an SMS could not have originated from Maxis/Hotlink. Customers are urged to not call these numbers.

Example of SMS Scam:

E-Government in Malaysia

Malaysia aims to become developed country in the year 2020. To achieve this vision, Malaysia has started to develop its E-Government policies.
Malaysian Government has its own official portal now: http://www.gov.my/

This website consists of four categories: Citizen, Non-citizen, business and government.

Citizen: http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/Citizen/
This website is linked to many other website. Public can get some information under this category, such as education, employment, security and safety, legal matters, health and etc. Public also can use the online service such as job application (http://www.elx.gov.my/) pay for summon (http://www.speed.com.my and http://www.myeg.com.my/) and etc.

Business: http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/Business/
This website is linked to Inland Revenue Board Malaysia, Companies or individuals can summit their income tax return by using e-filling provided here. Besides that, the website is also linked to SSM (application for business name approval), Advertising licenses and etc.

Government: http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/Government/
This website is more likely to provide services for public servant. For example, they can check the computation of Pension, Gratuity and Cash in lieu of Accumulated Leave for Compulsory Retirement, apply for the appointment of education service position, apply for evaluation competency level examination and etc.

Non-citizen: http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/NonCitizen/
Non-citizen can visit this website to search for the information about Malaysia. They can fill the income tax form, apply for renewal of licenses, apply for immigration and etc.

Development of E-Government has given Malaysian citizen a great deal of convenience; it connects public to the government, especially for companies and individuals who need to summit income tax return, it saves lots of time!!

However, success of E-Government still have many barriers, for example, linkage of databases like My-card, public awareness of E-Government, Language barrier in the website (most of the websites are using Malay, including Non-citizen directory), speed’s issues of services and Internet connection area within Malaysia.

E-Government is one of the indicators to show the success of a country. To achieve our vision 2020, E-Government is playing an important role.

Corporate Blogging~A new marketing communication for companies.

In today's economy, corporate Blog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. Corporate Blogging refers to a company producing or supporting a blog that it uses to accomplish business objectives.

It has three types which are external blog, internal blog and CEO Blog. Internal blog is a weblog that any employee can view, it encourage employee participation, free discussion of issues, direct communication between various layers of organization and is a sense of community. On the other hands, external blogs is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or it often used to announce new products or new services, to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issue. It is useful in company marketing communication, the marketer can asking the user for feedback, doing product testing or shows marketing plans to the customer through the blog.

Moreover, corporate weblogs, or “blogs”, are a great, cost-effective way to engage customers, fellow professionals. Besides that, employees on blogs communicate with customers, with business partners and anyone else about a wide array of business topics. How can you benefit from promoting corporate blogging within your company? Depending on the company or your business model, corporate blogging can help your company feel more human to the world and it is a way for your company to become intertwined with the Internet community. If your corporate blog gains popularity, you could have thousands of people subscribing to your feeds. This can equate to instant success and popularity of your products.

For examples:

Companies like Adobe, Dell, and Wal-Mart are getting into the blogosphere because it’s imperative for their competitive advantage, for corporate marketers to do things right and to also blog for the right purposes. Blogging is inescapable for corporations and with a renewed focus on figuring out the ROI of blogging, corporate marketers can soon start blogging without fear and with a reason.

Pros:
~Reach more employees with a single message
~Be more accessible
~Create a searchable archive of thoughts and ideas
~Employees' questions and feedback will be permanently recorded on a blog

Cons:
~Need to master a new style of communicating
~Creates an expectation that you will post regularly
~Puts the CEO “out there” and writing ability and though process will be scrutinized—at least initially
~The writing can be difficult unless the CEO loves to write (in which case this becomes a positive)

Corporate blog examples

Jonathan’s Blog - The blog of Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems. Although John is the CEO of a USD$15 billion company, he blogs just like a regular guy.

The Official Google Blog - My favorite corporate blog, the Google blog gives you a peek into the internet giant’s products, technology and culture and frequently features manager’s blogging about the projects they work on.

Blue Flavor Blog - Blue Flavor is another successful small business that effectively employs a thought leadership strategy in their blog.

Kid Chan Studio Blog - A good example of a corporate blog from a Malaysian company.

Exabyte Blog - Another Malaysian blog, the Exabyte Blog does a good job of humanizing a ‘virtual’ company and notifying readers of special offers.

10 Most Popular Corporate Blogs (Ranked) - May 2008:

Boeing
Monster
Kodak
Delta
Yahoo!
General Motors
Ask.com
LinkedIn
Digg
Dell Yahoo! Search

The application of pre-paid card for consumers

A prepaid card looks like a credit or debit card, and gives users the ability to purchase products and services with a card but with a crucial difference - you can only spend the balance that has been preloaded onto the card. This means there is no risk of running into debt as it has no credit or overdraft facility.

The most common use of prepaid card in Malaysia is Touch ’n Go. Touch ‘n Go card is an electronic purse that can be used at all highways in Malaysia, major public transports in Klang Valley, selected parking sites. Touch ‘n Go enhances the speed of paying for low value but high frequency transactions. Apart from the speed, it is also very convenient because user no longer need to prepare for small change or wait in queue at the cash lane to complete the transaction.

In Singapore, ez-link card is used commonly. The ez-link card is a thin, compact card conforming to ISO/IEC 7816 card dimensions. A tamper-proof IC chip and antenna are built into the card. The sensing distance between the card and the reader is up to 10cm. The card itself contains no battery but operates from electromagnetic energy received from the reader.
Both the card and the reader ensure secure, fast and reliable transmission of data between them. The strong encryption techniques prevent eavesdropping and fraudulent use. This helps to ensure the integrity of transaction information captured.

Compared to touch ’n go in Malaysia, ez-link card is more convenient. It is used in many sectors:
1) Food & Beverage such as McDonald's Restaurants, Chills Café, Sakae Sushi (NTU), Old Chang Kee (NTU) and F&N Coca Cola Vending Machines and etc.

2) Convenience Store: 7-Eleven

3) Gaming: Singapore Pools Branches

4) Government Services: Immigrant & Checkpoints Authority, National Library Board and Singapore Land Authority (Temasek Tower Office only)

5) Health: Tan Tock Seng Hospital Pharmacy and Health Sciences Authority

6) Shopping, Retail & Leisure: Booklink Bookshop (Republic Polytechnic), Cathay Cineleisure, Chinese Swimming Club, More Than Words Pte Ltd

7) Tertiary Institutions: National University of Singapore (Central Lib, Science Lib, CJ Koh Law Lib, Hon Sui Sen Lib), Singapore Polytechnic (Service Kiosk), MDIS

8) Schools: PLMGS (Canteen and Bookshop), Campus Supplies Pte Ltd, Ang Mo Kio Sec Sch and etc.

9) Private Bus Services: Metro Tours Singapore, Transit Network Consortium Ltd, Ming Yu Jiang Express Pte Ltd and Premier Buses

10) Others: WYWY Office Solutions Pte Ltd, Seng City Photocopying and Printing and Expresspoint Business Services (PSB Academy)

Top-up services and ez-link payments are available at the following merchants:
1) 7 Eleven
2) MDIS
3) PLMGS (Pacific Bookstores Pte Ltd)
4) Republic Polytechnic (Booklink)

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers’ adoption strategies.

Bank Negara Malaysia sees tremendous promise in mobile telecommunication networks seem more applicable as an electronic payment channel since mobile phones are already in the hands of most Malaysians, with 88% of the Malaysian population subscribing to mobile phone services.

There are immense opportunities to leverage on mobile phones to accelerate the migration to electronic payments, to widen the reach and appeal of electronic payment services, to deliver innovative mobile payment products that offer speed, simplicity and convenience at minimal cost for the public, as well as to provide an efficient and cost-effective method of delivering financial services even in the remote areas.

The high percentage of mobile phone subscriber and the high rate of participation of the population in the banking system are important pre-conditions for the significant use of the mobile phone as an ideal platform for personal payments. With the favorable market conditions, various mobile banking and payment initiatives have been launched in recent years and it is estimated to have a lucrative market for mobile payment and banking services.

In year 2006, Mobile Money International Berhad has developed the MMWallet as a mobile payment system. It can solve the limitation created by cash, cheques and credit cards. The applicants can use the mobile phone to consume goods or service whenever they wish to do so through the MMWallet. It is also a must for user to either have a saving, current or credit card account with participating bank. However it is safer than other online paying as the user is not required to give out their credit card information.

Electronic currency - BitPass

is a micropayment service that facilitates online content access transactions by integrating the processes involved in buying and selling content, and making it practical to charge very small amounts of money. In the BitPass system, transaction fees are paid by the content provider. Micropayments are by definition very small sums, so the fee is usually just a few cents. For the content buyer, the BitPass system works similarly to a pre-paid telephone card: you sign up for the service and put money into your account using a credit card or PayPal, which gives you credit towards the purchase of content. When the user agrees to pay the cost of access, their account is charged automatically rather than through a link to an external Web site for payment.

Doug Knopper

was an online payment system for digital content and services. Kurt Huang was a co-founder; Doug Knopper was hired as CEO in November, 2005. Bitpass was a California corporation with headquarters in Silicon Valley. It was founded in December, 2002 and partnered with major technology and financial services companies such as Microsoft, PayPal, the Royal Bank of Scotland and First Data.

On January 19th, 2007 Bitpass announced that they were shutting down, and operations officially closed on January 26th, 2007. Bitpass sent out an email to users saying it was closing Jan 26 (see below).

Dear Valued Bitpass Buyer,

We want to thank you for your past business, however due to circumstances beyond our control, we are discontinuing our operations.

We have partnered with Digital River to provide operational support during the period prior to shut down. As of today, January 19, 2007, all Bitpass Buyers with US dollar denominated accounts are being notified that they will have seven (7) days to spend any amounts that currently exist in their Bitpass Account.

During this seven day period, US Buyers will not be able to further fund their account.

On January 26, all US Bitpass Buyer accounts will be closed and Digital River will begin the process of refunding all unspent monies to the accountholder.

All account records and materials will be retained for 60 days and available upon request.

Again we would like to thank you for your business and support.

Matthew Graves
Chief Operating Officer
Bitpass Inc.

Credit Card Debt: Causes and Prevention

What is Credit Card?
A credit card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. In the case of credit cards, the issuer lends money to the consumer (or the user) to be paid later to the merchant.


What is Credit Card Debt?
Credit card debt is an example of unsecured consumer debt, accessed through ISO 7810 plastic credit cards. Nowadays, credit card debt is a burgeoning problem for many people. A lot of people use credit cards as a "crutch."


Causes

Financial Over limit

The downside to credit card debt is that the interest rates alone can force the average person or family to eventually have to rely on bankruptcy. If they can't afford something they really want, they charge it. Then when it comes time to paying the bill they pay the minimum amount due (very bad thing) only. This then accumulates an awful amount of interest and the next month when you get your bill, the balance is about the same.

Poor money management

Another factor related to student credit card debt is one's attitude toward money. Teenagers experience "premature affluence" because of their high levels of discretionary income and almost no bills. Some teens may become used to a certain lifestyle and not know how to adjust when bills increase in college. Further, some students may be accumulate debt because they believe that their current financial situation is temporary and that short-term debt will be easily repaid and is not a problem. Students may be willing to tolerate debt so that they can maintain the comfortable lifestyle to which they are accustomed.

Prevention
Excessive credit card debt can cause a poor credit rating, bankruptcy and subjection to high annual interest rates. However, if you manage your credit card well, you can avoid these problems. Simple preventions will keep the savvy card holder from such dangers.


Stop debt growing
If debt is growing, there are four things card holders can do immediately:

1. Move debts to the lowest interest rate available. Remember, a card holder with a good credit rating can always ring and ask the credit card company for a lower rate at any time.
2. Prioritize paying off the most expensive debt first, so interest is kept to the minimum.
3. Assess their situation fully, work out their income and expenditure, and total their debts and assets.
4. Take this information to a professional body offering free debt advice.


Payment protection
In fact, spending on a credit card is borrowing money. Some cards offer payment protection insurance, but premiums are often high and the conditions of payout complicated. The best insurance against inability to pay is to pay as much as possible, as regularly as possible, and limit unnecessary spending. If a card is too tempting, only take cash when shopping. Try to double up on the payment and when you get extra cash, rather than spend it, apply that towards the principal.



Get professional help
There are plenty of debt consolidation firms offering to help, but do bear in mind these companies ultimately make money from a card holder’s debt. There are four main agencies that offer free, impartial advice for those in debt: the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Consumer Credit Counseling Service, National Debt line, and Pay plan. These are non-profit making organizations that guide those in debt through the options available to them.

The application of third party certification programme in Malaysia

The certification programme is performed by the third party in order to verify and authenticate the web site.The “third parties” who issue the digital certificate to verify and authenticate the website is called certificate authorities.

Digital certificate usually attach to an e-mail message or an embedded program in a web page that verifies that user or website is who they claim to be. The common functions of a digital certificate are user authentication, encryption and digital signatures. User authentication provides other security than using username and password. Its session management is stronger. Encryption can make the data transmission secured by using the information encrypted. The intended recipient of the data is only person to receive the message. Digital signatures are like the hand signature in the digital world. It can ensure the integrity of the data.

By using the digital certificate, the users will be able to make transaction on the internet without fear of having the personal data being stolen, information contaminated by third parties, and the transacting party denying any commercial commitment with the users. Furthermore, the digital certificates can assist the development of greater internet based activities.
There are some famous certificate authorities:

VeriSign is a truster provider of internet infrastructure services for digital world. VeriSign offerings included SSL, SSL Certificate, digital content solutions, Extended Validition, two-factor authentication, identity protection, managed network security, public key infrastructure (PKI), security consulting, information management, and solution for intelligent communication and content.

MSC Trustgate.com was established in 1999 as a licensed Certification Authority (CA) in Malaysia under the Digital Signature Act 1997. It provide security solutions and trusted services to help companies build a secure network and application infrastructure for their electronic transactions and communications over the network.


Generally, the application of third party certification programme is able to enhance the reliability of the e-commerce site by identifying the “real” website when we are conducting the e-commerce transactions and therefore improve the customer trust. Besides, company is also been protected by retaining their customers.

The threat of online security.How safe is our data?

In the technological century, online security is important when using internet. However, the online security still has threats through Internet which is not a safe place unless you have adequate protection against the varieties of threats. Since the Internet is a public system in which every transaction can be tracked, logged, and stored in any locations which contain the threats it will attack or destroy to the computers. Most of the corporate and home users face an increased risk from web-based security threats such as hacker attacks, spyware, viruses, fraud, and identity theft when visiting Web sites.

Furthermore, computer hackers are employing increasingly sophisticated methods to investigate that information loose. In many cases, they're devising small attacks that can fly under the radar of traditional security software, while exploiting the trust users place in popular business and consumer Web sites. Hackers also are employing more professional approaches to maximize damage without being caught. These include division of labor by hacking expertise and wider use of black-market sites to hire programmers and purchase professional malware-writing tools.

In fact, adult content security issue still in the closet through visiting the red light district of the Internet makes the user vulnerable to spyware, viruses and leakage of confidential information which can cause significant damage. Children can inadvertently access pornography by innocently mistyping or using popular search terms, landing on misleading URLs and from misuse of brand names by those intentionally exposing them to porn. Unsuspecting victims can easily be fooled by drive-by downloads containing a virus that automatically redirects them to adult-related sites exposing their computer to malware.

Moreover, online security the weakest point in an organization's defense. Employees who use company computers, either in the office or remotely, to access inappropriate sites, put their company at risk by introducing malware, viruses and spyware which can cause a security breach in the organization. The potential for damage is enormous, from inside and outside their firewalls, considering that confidential data can be stolen by key loggers and tracking cookies, a common form of malware used by porn sites.

In the conclusion, the users must be aware on their personal information like password and log in information via email.

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods.

What is phishing? Phishing is an e-mail fraud method in which the perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking email in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from recipients. Typically, the messages appear to come from well known and trustworthy Web sites. Web sites that are frequently spoofed by phishers include PayPal, eBay, MSN, Yahoo, BestBuy, and America Online. The phisher puts the lure hoping to fool at least a few of the prey that encounter the bait.

PayPal phishing example

In an example PayPal phish, spelling mistakes in the e-mail and the presence of an IP address in the link are both clues that this is a phishing attempt. Another giveaway is the lack of a personal greeting, although the presence of personal details would not be a guarantee of legitimacy.

To avoid getting hooked:

• Don't reply to email o r pop-up messages that ask for personal or financial informatio n, and don't click on links in the message. Don't cut and paste a link from the message into your Web browser — phishers can make l inks look like they go one place, but tha t actually send you to a different site.
• Some scammers s end an email that appears to be from a legiti mate business and ask you to call a phone number to upd ate your account or access a "refund." Because they use Voice over Internet Protocol technology, the area code you call does not reflect wher e the scammers really are. If you need to reach an organizati on you do business with, call the number on your financial state ments or on the back of your credit card.
• Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as a firewall, and update them all regularly.
• Don't email personal or financial info rmation.
• Review credit card and bank accoun t statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorize d charges.
• Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receives, regardless of who sent them.

See also

• Anti-phishing software
• DomainKeys
• Computer insecurity
• Defensive computing
• E-mail spoofing
• Pharming
• Rock Phish Kit
• Social engineering
• Vishing

How to safegaurd our personal and financial data?

There are certain steps to safegaurd our personal financial life:

1. Shred old documents. To protect ourselves against potential fraud or identity theft, the best way is to eliminate our own paper trail.

2. Review our monthly statements. Review our monthly statements can alert us to possible fraudulent charges and we may also find legitimate charges for services that are redundant.

3. Get it in writing. Require anyone who solicits us over the phone to first send their information by mail, so we can check its legitimacy.

4. Use a credit card with a small limit when doing mail-order and online purchases. It's all too easy for a dishonest sales clerk to use our credit card information. If the card we used for these purchases has a low credit limit, at least thieves won't be able to pay many bills.

5. Opt ourselves out of all pre-approved credit card offers. Internet is littered with many pre-approved credit offers; all of them could spell disaster in the hands of the unscrupulous.

6. Use certain credit counseling services. For example: http://www.safeguardcredit.org/site/
More anti-online fraud related websites:
Paypal Protection: http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_home-general&nav=0
CyberSource: http://www.cybersource.co.uk/

7. Choose our PIN wisely. It cannot to be something that a thief could easily figure out just by knowing our birth date or any information of us. A combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols will offer more security.

8. To be vigilant while using the Internet. Independently verify the validity of any requests for personal information before give out any of our sensitive data.

9. Protect computer's security. Use as many tools as we can (anti-virus software, spyware, firewalls, and passwords) to guard our computer information from nefarious software.

10. Check for anonymous and open proxy IP addresses. IP addresses can be forged to hide the true location of the fraudster. Organized credit card fraud rings often use anonymous Open Proxies to "cover their track". To find out whether the IP logged by particular customer is originating from an open proxy, we can use the tools provided by

http://www.all-nettools.com/

or http://www.openrbl.org/.

If the IP is listed as an open proxy, be extra careful with the order.

The example of an E-Commerce success and its causes-Amazon.com

was launched in 1999, which is an e-commerce best known as the first online retailer of the Internet world. With sales several times that of its competitors, the company has achieved its status as the industry leader by adopting the concept of selling goods via the Internet's World Wide Web.

Amazon.com is presently ruling the Internet business with its best marketing techniques and expertise in relation to the market trends and demands of its customers. It is booming through out the world of e-business with its wide range of books related to a variety of subjects and topics, committing a major source of income as well as also succeeded in marinating brand names.

Amazon.com understands three essential elements to success in e-commerce.

1. Loyalty

Customer loyalty is critical for success and Amazon.com finds over 40% of first time customers will reorder. An even more critical concept is that they are winning the hearts, mind and souls of their customers. Provide a good service and you win not just the book custom but their entertainment spend and soon their commodity spend and maybe later financial services and auto spend.

2. Quality

Quality is essential and anyone who has used the Amazon.com service knows that they can rely on a total customer service package. Amazon.com offers an easy to navigate interface. This design and well as the design of Yahoo proves that great design is worth less than a great offer! Also an important element behind the quality feel of Amazon.com is the email service that informs customers of the progress of an order.

3. Dependability

Dependability is what Amazon.com has invested in and it is what drives Amazon.com ahead of any competition. Too many ecommerce solutions exist today which have tried to succeed without making the investment necessary to provide fast and efficient service.

How Google, Amazon.com and eBay generate their revenues?

Google, Amazon.com and eBay are corporations that well-known of their success of online revenue generation. Let’s take a quick view of their revenue generation model:
Google:

Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information.

Google generates revenue primarily by delivering relevant, cost-effective online advertising. For the year 2007, Google has generated 16 billion dollars of revenue. It is amazing that 99% of this figure is generated from advertising services given by Google. The balance of 1% is derived from licenses of other products and services such as web search technology and search solutions to enterprises.

Google is adopting an automated online program named AdWords, which enables advertisers to place text-based and display advertisement on its websites. Most of the AdWords customers pay Google on a click-per-click basis. Google has many network members, such as Youtube. 35% of its advertising revenue is derived from its members’ website. For more information, please visit http://investor.google.com/order.html

Amazon.com:

Amazon.com Inc. is an American e-commerce company which is one of the first major companies to sell goods by Internet. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified to product lines of CD, DVD, mp3, computer software, apparel furniture, toys, etc.

Amazon.com has made revenue of 14 billion dollars for the year 2007. The primary source of revenue is the sale of wide range of products and services to its customers. 55% of the sales derived from North America and the balance are derived from international market. Based on the growth rate of these two primary markets, revenue from international market tends to exceed North America in few years time. For more information, please visit http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-reportsAnnual

eBay:

Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering them to explore new opportunities and innovate together. eBay Inc. does this by providing the Internet platforms of choice for global commerce, payments and communications.

There are 3 primary business segment operated by eBay currently: Marketplaces, Payments and Communications. The marketplaces provide online transaction platform such as eBay.com, Shopping.com, StubHub, Half.com and Rent.com. The payment segment such as PayPal, enables users to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. Lastly, the communication segment, which consists of Skype, enables VoIP calls and provides low-cost connectivity to mobile telephones.

eBay has generated about 7 billion dollars for the year 2007. 96% of the revenues are generated from transaction. The balance of 4% consists of advertising and other income. Marketplaces have generated greatest revenues for eBay while the communications segment is the least. For more information, please visit http://investor.ebay.com/annuals.cfm.

In conclusion, the main difference of these 3 corporations is the way they generate revenues. Google made their revenues mainly from advertisements, while Amazon.com generated from online retailing and eBay's revenues mainly gained from services provided.

The History and Evolution of E-commerce

The history of electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, is a history of how Information Technology has transformed business processes. This has to date back to the notion of “sell and buy”, electricity, cables, computers, modems, and the Internet.

In the early 1970s, the term ecommerce meant the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do transactions electronically.

The Internet began life as an experiment by U.S. government in 1969. In early 1990s, a great number of business companies in the U.S. represented their services in the World Wide Web such as dot-com, and Internet start-ups. At this time, people began to define the term ecommerce as the process of purchasing of available goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic payment services.
In 1999, during the first generation of E-commerce boom, B2C (Business to Consumer) models have been tried and tested but the newer trends are toward B2B (Business to Business) and Click-and-Mortar models. According to all available data, ecommerce sales continued to grow in the next few years and, by the end of 2007, ecommerce sales accounted for 3.4 percent of total sales.



Undoubtedly, ecommerce is going to shift and change according to the customer advantage. And it has been estimated to have a dramatically growth as the time goes onwards.

The example of an E- Commerce failure and its causes

The Dot-com Flops~

Kozmo.com (1998-2001)
Kozmo.com was a venture-capital-driven online company that promised free one-hour delivery of anything from DVD rentals to Starbucks coffee in the United States. It was founded by young investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang in March 1998 in New York City. Kozmo had a business model that promised to deliver small goods free of charge, typically by using bicycle messengers. The model was criticized by some business analysts, who pointed out that one-hour point-to-point delivery of small objects is extremely expensive and were skeptical that Kozmo could make a profit as long as it refused to charge delivery fees.

While popular with college students and young professionals, the company failed soon after the collapse of the dot-com bubble, laying off its staff of 1,100 employees and shutting down in April 2001. 18 locations nationwide and their Memphis distribution center were liquidated by a veteran entertainment wholesaler from Florida. According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in 1999 the company had revenue of $3.5 million, with a resulting net loss of $26.3 million.

The shining example of a good idea gone bad, online store and delivery service Kozmo.com made it on our list of the top 10 tech we miss. For urbanites, Kozmo.com was cool and convenient. You could order a wide variety of products, from movies to snack food, and get them delivered to your door for free within an hour. It was the perfect antidote to a rainy night, but Kozmo learned too late that its primary attraction of free delivery was also its undoing. After expanding to seven cities, it was clear that it cost too much to deliver a DVD and a pack of gum.Though it never had an IPO (one was planned), Kozmo raised about $280 million and even secured a $150 million promotion deal with Starbucks.

Self-introduction-Tze Ming

I am Tze Ming, 20 years old, come from Malacca, single, still available for anyone (except male). I have two sisters, and I am the 2nd child of my parents.

I love sports.
I love to play basketball the most!! I have played for 8 years since form one in secondary school. Although I always sprain my legs and hands while playing basketball, but it still cannot stop me for playing basketball, I love this sport so much!! Unfortunately, all my group members don’t like to play it. Anyone from other groups interested to play with me?? I will very glad to play with you!!
I love to play badminton and ping pong too. I often play badminton, as my group members love this sport so much… For ping pong, never play after started my university life as I feel shy to play at south or north lobby in UTAR, haha…

I love music too. I have learnt “erhu” for 12 years and join Chinese orchestra since secondary school. Compared to western music, Chinese music are more diversified, it contains 50++ different folk culture in China, and many Chinese music instrument can do many sound effects that western instrument can’t. I have joined many performances and I really enjoy them.
I love to western music too. Its sound effect is more harmony compared to Chinese orchestra.
I like Jay Chow the most, I feel he is so talented, and he has the same surname with me, haha…

Same as other guys, i love to play games, sleep and eat also...

I often surf the web. These are the website that I visit frequently:
Google- As it is my homepage…
nba.com- I love basketball and I concern about the NBA news. I can watch highlight of matches here.
Friendster- Watch pretty girl’s photo!!!!
Youtube- Watch funny movie!!
China’s Yahoo sports- As it contains many news of Houston Rocket, a NBA team that I like the most.
p/s: This is the 1st time that i wrote my blog in English....=.=!!

Self-introduction~Shi Ying

I'm Shi Ying. I come from Johor Bahru, Johor and I staying at Scotpine Condominium now. As for my family, I have two sisters and one brother who four year younger than me. My father is a carpenter and my entire house’s furniture is made by him. My mother has been taking care of household. The relationship between my family members are harmony and interdependent.

My hobbies are watching TV programs, reading novels and comics. Actually, I do not like any animal because I scare them will harm me. I think an ideal life is look like no need to work, no need to study and stay at home everyday. I wish that I can fulfill the ideal life but it is prohibited by realistic.

My 3 wishes in this year are I hope my result will be better, I can save my travel fees to Taiwan and learn guitar.

The website I always go through are:
1) www.google.com – The google website is the homepage of my computer, so I will go through it at lease 10 times a day.
2) www.youtube.com – I always watch the entertainment show from there.
3) www.imayday.com – My idol-Mayday’s official website. I can get their latest news from there.
4) www.friendster.com – I can contact with my friend and know their recently condition from there.
5) www.utar.edu.my – This is the official answer.