Corporate Blogging : A new marketing communication tools for companies (Week 6)

The corporate blog is a published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The useful of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads. All current browsers like the Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 7 support RSS technology, which enables readers to easily read recent posts without actually visiting the blog, which is very useful for low-volume blogs. There are many types of blogs, commonly can be categorized as either internal or external blog.

Internal Blog
The internal blog is 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. It can encourage the direct communication between various layers of an organization. Beside, it was useful in different place of meetings and e-mail discussions, and can be especially useful when the people involved are in different locations, or have conflicting schedules.

External Blog
The external blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to promote the new products and services (or the end of old products), to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues. There are few blogs that allow comments to be made to the posts.

Pros and cons of corporate blogs
The corporate blogs may require lots of time because blogging’s biggest cost isn’t money, it’s time. When this comes to executives, the cost per hour radically increases from a support technician or a line marketing manager. The blog most don't receive a lot of traffic. The same applies to blogs, while there are millions out there, only a few rises to the top of their marketplace and really stand out. It was hard to measure success. The problem with blogs is that social software success could take the form of comments, trackbacks, and qualitative intangibles.In marketing terms, a blog can bring a human personality to a faceless company, which can create a connection between the corporation and the client. This can lead to deeper loyalty and richer feedback.

Thing To Take Note To Prevent E-auction Fraud When A Consumer Participating In An-auction

E-Auction, is a tool used in industrial business-to-business procurement. It is a type of auction in which the role of the buyer and seller are reversed, with the primary objective to drive purchase prices downward. It is consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. In an ordinary auction (also known as a forward auction), buyers compete to obtain a good or service. In e- auction, sellers compete to obtain business.

To protecting against an e- auction fraud for a consumer;

To guard against the e-auction fraud, to be certain that you placed the product a verification email will be forwarded to the user. Upon receipt of this email, you must respond to ebay so that they may complete your bidder. Without this confirmation from user, the product will not be deliver. ebay are not liable for fraud committed against user , and ebay will be unable to help user if ones do not follow proper prevention measures.

Deliveries Procedures

• On average, almost all deliveries are completed in 7 to 14 business days.
• All items are Ground Delivery and you must provide a telephone number for the delivery address.
• To help you Track an Order, we will forward you tracking numbers via email within 3-5 business days of placing the order.
  Authorized Returns

• Authorization for any return merchandise must be approved by our Return Center.
• Once you receive authorization from our return department, we will also forward an e-mail with instructions on how and where to send your return.
• Return the item to the address given to you by our return department in that e-mail.

User identity verification

• Uses the services of Equifax to verify user identities for a $5 fee.
• Verified the user, a voluntary program, encourages users to supply with information for online verification.
• By offering their Social Security number, driver’s license number, and date of birth, users can qualify for the highest level of verification.

Authentication service

• Product authentication is a way of determining whether an item is genuine and described appropriately.
• Authentication is very difficult to perform because it relies on the expertise of the authenticators.

Feedback Forum

• The Feedback Forum allows registered buyers and sellers to build up their online trading reputations.

Insurance policy

• The offers insurance underwritten by Lloyd’s of London.
• Users are covered up to $200, with a $25 deductible.

Physical inspection

• When the seller and buyer are in the same location, it is easy to arrange for such inspections.

Escrow services

• For items valued at more than $200 or when either a buyer or seller feels the need for additional security.
• With an easy-to-access link to a third-party escrow service, both partners in a deal are protected.
• The buyer mails the payment to the escrow service, which verifies the payment and alerts the seller when everything checks out.

Verification

• One way of confirming the identity and evaluating the condition of an item is through verification.

If you have conducted internet purchase transactions and have used eBay, then we would also recommend that you review the information contained in the eBay Trust and Safety Centre at http://www.ebay.com/ concerning the use of payment services Western Union also provide guidance on consumer fraud awareness.

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen's adoption strategies

The Electronic Government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It will improve how the government operates internally, as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses. At the same time, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.

The Government wants to make e-government more customer-oriented to complement the large infrastructure build-up that has been the primary focus of its efforts.

The 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are as follows;

1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
7. E-Syariah

The main goals of e-Government are to improve the quality of public services and the efficiency of administrative work. However, it does not allow citizen participation in local government administration such as policy making and implementation processes using ICT.

The implementation of e-Government in Malaysia heralds the beginning of a journey of reinventing the government by transforming the way it operates, modernising and enhancing its service delivery. E-Government seeks to enhance the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with the public and businesses at large. Citizens and businesses are also able to transact with the government anywhere and anytime at their convenience. Realising the vision of the Electronic Government, this maiden edition of the Public Sector ICT Management Review focuses on the implementation of several e-Government projects at the Federal and State Governments.


Firstly, it aims to search for the best practices of e-government services through exchange of professional experiences across EU countries.

Secondly. It aims to understand the perceived challenges of the project transformation process while identifying the best strategies adoption in developing, e-government projects which integrate with EU standards.

Thirdly, it aims to analyse e-administration trends of e-government in Europe and develop recommendations for the implementations of relevant applications for e-city portal in the form of policy framework, standards, models of executions and strategic plans for the reference of national government.

Finally, its aims to stimulate and coordinate / promote international collaboration in e-government services in dual ways between Ipoh and cities in Europe as well as facilitating relevant European / local SMEs who have the technological expertise and knowledge models to work together under the agenda of e-government in Malaysia.

A review on a post on Legal from My E-Commerce blog - How to lose your ID easily to fraudsters at home?

This post help me aware about the threads. With the awareness that i have now, everytime i throw something which i think useless into the dustbin i will make sure all my personal information contain inside the letter or mail is not cleary see then only i throw it away.

I remember last time i was filling an application form to apply for a bank draft in the bank, when i plan to do the identity card verification i then only realise the CHIP on my IC is not functioning! but the form i already filled in, so at that time i was decided to "COLOUR" it till i can't see what i wrote then only i tear off the form and throw it into the dustbin.

I'm very scare of my personal belonging or information get known by others. Sometimes, a stranger that ask me to fill in the form in order to register something on the side of the road especially outside the institution that i study currently, i will try to give them FAKE information about myself. I believe that this could help me to avoid my personal information get use by others to register on something that may cause harm to me. Of course, this is provided that i know the existence of the company or event then i will provide my personal information to them. Most of the time, being a CAREFUL person we will not lose anything. so,

DO REMEMBER NOT TO SIMPLY GIVE OUT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO OTHERS AND KEEP IT CONFIDENTIAL ALL THE TIME! PROVIDE IT WHEN IT IS NECCESSARY! AND BE CAREFUL!

Mobile payment system in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies

Mobile payment (also referred to as mobile web payment or WAP billing) is the collection of money from a consumer via a mobile device such as their mobile phone, SmartPhone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or other such device.



Mobile Money is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed by Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd to address the limitations and bottlenecks created by cash, cheques and credit cards. It unlocks the power of the mobile phone to make payments, allowing registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere using only a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS (Short Messaging Service).

There are two primary models for mobile payments:

• Premium SMS based transactional payments
• Mobile web payments (WAP)

Mobile Money is to provide Merchants and consumers with a convenient and secure Mobile Payment and Mobile Commerce platform.

Mobile Money (MM) payment system complies with the regulator's stringent requirements. MM Mobile Payment platform allows everyone to pay anyone, at anytime from anywhere with just one SMS. It also allows one to receive money from anyone, from anywhere, at anytime. MM Mobile Payment system is very secure and it is a closed loop payment system.

Wide enough acceptance and adoption of mobile payment technologies and systems is a prerequisite for consumer adoption of many, if not most, mobile commerce services. Based on the innovation diffusion theory of Rogers (1995) we present results from two, concurrent sets of empirical data on merchant adoption of mobile payment systems. In addition to the potential advantages of mobile payments we also identified several barriers to their adoption, most clearly in four categories: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and costs.

Credit Card Debts : Causes and Prevention (Week 5)

A credit card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. For the case of credit cards, the issuer lends money to the consumer (or the user) to be paid later to the merchant. It is different from a charge card, which requires the balance to be paid in full each month. In contrast, a credit card allows the consumer to 'revolve' their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are issued by local banks or credit unions, and are the same shape and size, as specified by the ISO 7810 standard.

Credit card debt is an example of unsecured consumer debts, accessed through ISO 7810 plastic credit cards. Debt results when a client of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system. Debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay or late payment the company for the money he or she has spent. When a consumer has been late on a payment, it is possible that other creditors, even creditors the consumer was not late in paying, may increase the interest rates the consumer is paying. This practice is called universal default.

Causes
Sometimes the late fees, high annual percentage rates (APRs), and universal default overcome consumers who frequently not pay off their debt and the customer declare bankruptcy. If a customer files for bankruptcy, the credit card companies are required to forgive all or much of the debt, unless such discharge of debt is successfully challenged by one or more creditors, or blocked by a bankruptcy judge on legal grounds irrespective of creditors' challenges. Another negative consequence of using credit card is that you will never feel like you are spending the real money.

Prevention
There are 3 steps to prevention the bankrupt for the customers. Firstly, pay more than the minimum payment each month. The customers must also pay on time or a finance charge will be added onto the total and creating a larger minimum payment for the next month. Secondly, get a system for credit card debt reduction. The customers must have their deadline each month for paying bills. There are great software programs for keeping track of the financial records. Lastly, if you have a limited budget for debt repayment, write down what you can pay each creditor each month to avoid financial difficulty. Beside, the customers can negotiate with the credit cards companies to set the limit for their monthly credits.

The application of prepaid cash card to consumer

Nowadays, card is one important thing in our life. Lets introduce what is a pre-paid cash card. A pre-paid cash card is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. It is functionality is more similar to writing a cheque as the funds are withdrawn directly from either the bank account or from the remaining balance on the card.

Pre-paid cash cards offer a perfect way to keep track of our spending, ensuring that you won't overspend each month. Pre-paid cash card is for those consumer with poor credit, they should not give up. The consumer gets many chances to repair their credit record. Eventually the credit record is wiped and the consumer ends up being able to get whatever financial product they want.

The pre-paid cash cards are a wonderful way for parents to control what their kids spend when they are away at college. With the ability to load and reload the balance through automatic deposits from your own bank account, it is easy to send college students their spending money. Unlike a traditional credit card, a pre-paid card can never go over its limit, so parents are never surprised with a high balance to pay at the end of the month

As far as where to find pre-paid cash cards, you need to shop around and ask the credit card companies whether they offer the product. The pre-paid credit cards are advertised on the internet, or in the newspapers. There are now has a lot of banks offering the prepaid card, such as, Maybank Bank, Public Bank and others.

This is how prepaid cash card work and it is obvious really. You put money on the card, which you can do over the phone or online, and then you use the card to make purchases. You can continually put money onto the card if you want, but you cannot spend more than the balance you have left.

A review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog - Open Table.com, online reservation restaurant

About Open Table.com, what i think of when i read the post is that, hey! this is CONVENIENCE!!! (hope can have it at Malaysia) i personnaly try the Open Table.com, and the satisfaction is 100% if i'm the one who do the booking.

Firstly what i feel is, i can easily book a table in those busy restaurant especially during the dinner time. for user who go traveling they can use Open Table.com and do a reservation while they at their travelling spot.

Secondly, what i've found that open table.com do grouped those restaurant in categories, this is what i personnaly like the most! for example, THE MOST BOOKED, THE BEST OVERALL, BEST FOOD, ROMANTIC and etc. with this i can easily choose which restaurant that i wish to dine in.

Besides that, Open Table.com do inform the user about opening of the new restaurant. The particular restaurant provide confirmation on the booking immedietly, which they have a personnel who is in charge of this reservation. i think that, with the help of Open Table customer do feel 100% satisfaction with the service they provide. Every restaurant that participate in Open Table.com had provided a brief introduction about them so that user can make comparison on which restaurant they want. Convenience, is ALL about CONVENIENCE nowadays!

Phishing : Example and Prevention (Week 4)

Phishing is a THEFT. Phishing (pronounced “Fishing”) is an online fraud technique used by criminals to entice you to disclose your personal information. Phishing is the fastest rising online crime method used for stealing personal finances and perpetrating identity theft. There are 2 types of phishing. There are phishing attack and spear phishing attack. Phishers use many different tactics to lure you, including e-mail and Web sites that mimic well-known, trusted brands. A common phishing practice involves "spamming" recipients with fake messages that resemble a valid message from a well-known Web site or a company that the recipients might trust, such as a credit card company, bank, charity, or e-commerce online shopping site. The purpose of fake messages is to trick consumers into providing the following personal information. There are names and username, password, bank account numbers, ATM/debit or credit card number and others information.

Paypal and Citibank had fake by the phishers to request the personal information. Phishers are targeting the customers of banks and online payment services. Recently, most methods of phishing use some form of technical deception designed to make a link in an e-mail (and the spoofed website it leads to) appear to belong to the spoofed organization. Phishing always attempts to create a sense of urgency so that victims immediately respond without thinking. It is the way of phishing to increase the number of responses in order to acquire from their personal information.

There are few prevention methods.

First, use the strong passwords and change them often like strong passwords combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, which make them difficult for other people to guess.

Secondly, never reply to e-mail messages that request your personal information and never volunteer any personal information to someone who places an unsolicited call to you. In addition, don't click a link contained in a suspicious message because the link might not be trustworthy. It can eliminate the phishers obtain the financial information against the victims.

Lastly, it is important to use a firewall, keep your computer updated, and use antivirus software to help protect your PC.

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

Most security threats are made by attackers using a relatively small number of vulnerabilities. Attackers, being relatively opportunistic, take the path of least resistance, and continue to take advantage of these most common failures, rather than seeking out new exploits or taking advantage of more difficult ones. Fortunately, in many cases, their predictability makes it easier to prevent attack by following a few simple rules:

• Apply regular updates and patches as they become available.
• Employ security software and hardware such as firewalls and authentication servers.
• Do not use default passwords and other values that are provided with your software.

The top three threats are:

• Web servers and services. Default HTTP (Web) servers have had several vulnerabilities, and numerous patches have been issued over the past several years. Make sure all your patches are up to date, and do not use default configurations or default demonstration applications. These vulnerabilities may lead to denial-of-service attacks and other types of threats.
• Workstation service. An attacker can obtain full control over a computer by compromising the Windows Workstation service, which is normally used to route user requests.
• Windows remote access services. A variety of remote access methods are included by default on most systems. These systems can be very useful, but also very dangerous, and an attacker with the right tools can easily gain control over a host.

Cyber attacks fall under several general categories:

(1) accidental actions and (2) malicious attacks. Within this latter category there are numerous subgroups, including computer viruses, denial of service attacks and distributed denial of service attacks. A third area of cyber vulnerability, online fraud, comprises issues such as identity theft and data theft.

I. Accidental Actions

Accidental actions contribute to a large number of computer security risks. This category encompasses problems arising from basic lack of knowledge about online security concepts and includes issues such as poor password choices, accidental or erroneous business transactions, accidental disclosure, and erroneous or outdated software.

II. Malicious Attacks

Attacks that specifically aim to do harm are known as premeditated or 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 at the root of so-called "crackings" and "hackings" - notable examples of which include computer viruses, data theft, and Denial of Service (DOS) attacks.

III. Online Fraud

Online fraud is a broad term covering Internet transactions that involve falsified information. Some of the most common forms of online fraud are the sale via Internet of counterfeit documents, such as fake IDs, diplomas, and recommendation letters sold as credentials; offers of easy money, such as workat- home offers that claim to earn individuals thousands of dollars for trivial tasks; prank calls, in which dial-up connections lead to expensive long distance charges;
and charity facades, where donations are solicited for phony causes.

Identity theft is a major form of online fraud, or misrepresentation. Personal identity theft on the Internet is the newest form of fraud that has been witnessed in traditional settings for many years. For example, in traditional settings, thieves open credit card accounts with a victim's name, address and social security number, or bank accounts using false identification. In the online world, electronic commerce information can be intercepted as a result of vulnerabilities in computer security.

Data theft is the term used to describe not only the theft of information but also unauthorized perusal or manipulation of private data. Examples of data theft abound.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

All people should cooperate between each other to prevent reveal our own or consumer personal and financial data.

Internet is a public network of nearly 50,000 networks connecting millions of computers throughout the world. When we register to become a member of this website, we need to fill in some personal information.

The information is including name, date of birth, gender, address, telephone, e-mail address, occupation and interests. “Personal Financial Information” means any record containing a customer of a financial institution, whether in paper, electronic, or another form, that is handled by behalf of the institution or its affiliates.

If online purchase, the company will record consumer information records such as names, addresses, phone numbers, bank and credit card account numbers and et-cetera. Is it security to protect consumer avoid embezzled by other people?

Here are a few approaches on how to safeguard our personal and financial data:

(i) Do not reveal any personal information or particularly passwords to anyone. After using any of the Financial Data Center or member services, must remember to log out properly before leaving the Financial Data Center.

(ii) Install antispyware and antivirus software. Symantec, Norton and Avg antivirus are popular software use by computer users.Its clean computer and protect personal information, financial data and etc.

(iii) Web owner can use access control mechanism which limits actions that can be performed by an authenticated person or group. It determines who can use the network resource and what resource can be used.

(iv) Pay attention when using an ATM and keep your eyes peeled for anyone who seems a little too interested in your transactions. Use your free hand to shield the keypad when entering your PIN. Besides that, banker can add on fingerprint scanning on ATM machine.

(v) Review your monthly statements. Like flossing your teeth, this is a simple thing you can do to ward off calamity, yet it's surprising how many folks neglect to do it. Not only will reviewing your monthly statements alert you to possible fraudulent charges, you may also find legitimate charges for services that are either redundant or no longer necessary. For example, a close friend of mine realized she had been paying for two AAA memberships, one under her maiden name and one under her married name -- for four years! Lesson learned.

(vi) Protect your computer's security. Use as many tools as you can (anti-virus software, spyware, firewalls, and passwords) to guard your computer information from the nefarious. Failing to protect your computer is just as bad as leaving your door unlocked, your windows wide open, and a sign on the mat, saying, "Burglars, come on in."

(vii) Use a credit card with a small limit for mail-order and online purchases. It's all too easy for a dishonest sales clerk to use your credit card information. If the card you use for these purchases has a low credit limit, at least thieves won't be able to rack up many bills before hitting a wall.

(viii) Choose your PIN wisely. While you want to choose something you'll remember, you don't want it to be something that a clever thief could figure out just by learning your birth date or your child's name. A combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols will offer you more security.

Review on Internet Security : More than 1 million computer viruses in circulation now!!

First of all, before we talk about Computer virus let us just have a brief intro about COMPUTER VIRUS! The unwelcome guest for most us (computer-user)!

Computer Virus , can be defined as "poison" which may harm or destroy our windows. In a more PROFESSIONAL MANNER, computer virus can be defined as a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge or the user. VIRUS, which is a commonly used term , can be refer to different types of malware and adware programs. Don't be mixed up with Computer worms and Trojan horse. it's diferent from the way it spread. In year 2008 lately, computer virus had jus reach 1 Million plus! what advise for most computer user is that, now is really not a good time to run windows without security software.

VIRUS has it methods to avoid detect by the user, the list of methods were so called stealth, self-modification, encription with a variable key, polymorphic code, and metamorphic code.

Nevertheless, in order to avoid hit by virus, user is advised to update their virus defination everyday and scan it at least 2 to 3 times per week before they turn their computer off for the day. secondly, scan those portable drive before open it and don't ever try to presume that it is "CLEAN".

some nice anti-virus programs. ( Which i personally think it is best for me.)

Identify and compare the revenue model for Google, Amazon.com and eBay.

WHAT "THEY" USE??!

GOOGLE* earn revenue through 2 advertising programs, as you can see in the picture above.

Adsense is a ad serving program run by Google. website Owner can put text, image, and video advertisements on their site. these ads help google to generate revenue on either a Per- Click or Per-Thousand-Impression basis. besides that, google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service. Major advantage of this ads are less intrusive than most banner, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

Adwords is google main source of revenue. Adwords offer pay-per-click advertising, and site-targeted advertisement for both text and banner ads. Adwords is located at the right side of the webpage which have a words like " Sponsored Links" and sometimes above the main search results.

*Amazon.com *

Amazon main source of revenue is from Transaction fees. in this model, it contains commision earned based on either the volumn of the transaction and fee per transaction conducted at the website. Amazon usually use both of the model. Besides that, Amazon also offer advertisement space for their customer to make advertisement on their website. Amazon earn revenue through affiliate fees. for example, a handbag sell in amazon, each bag they sold amazon will get some commision from the transaction.

*eBay*

Transaction fees, which same as amazon.com, eBay earn revenue from those succesful transaction made. eBay offer affiliate program to earn revenue too. Paypal the is now ebay company, it picked up for $1.5 billion in year 2002. Vast majority of eBay transaction is done through Paypal. Ebay were also acquired Skype in year 2005 for $2.6 billion. eBay seller and buyer may use this service to start doing their trade.

An example of an E-commerce failure and its cause

Kozmo.com (1998-2001)

Kozmo is online store and delivery service. 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. Kozmo eventually initiated a $10 minimum charge, but that didn't stop it from closing in March 2001 and laying off 1,100 employees. Though it never had an IPO (one was planned), Kozmo raised about $280 million and even secured a $150 million promotion deal with Starbucks.

Kozmo become failure the causes are:

(i) No Marketing Plan

There are millions of websites out there, with millions of potential customers. What will you do to drive sales to your site? You need to have a good marketing strategy. Which should include search engine optimization; pay per clicks, pop-under's, banner ads, and affiliates just to name a few.

(ii) Not Every Product can be Sold on the Internet

All products were not meant to be sold online. There are a lot of reasons why some products sell online and others don't. First, shipping costs for large products can became very expensive. Allot of time people shopping for shoes, and clothing prefer to try this items on before buying. Food items have the chance for spoiling, and fragile items are easily broken in shipping. You need to investigate a lot in the products you are selling before deciding to go online.

(iii) Specialization

Not every business can become an amazon.com right at the first. You will need to specialize in a certain product to build up a good reputation. Reputation is a key ingredient to have any clout in the online world.

(iv) Security

Making your site as secure as possible is a must. We live in a day an age were electronic theft and sabotage is used more and more. Protecting your customer's credit card information is vital. Another thing that is over looked when it comes to security is protecting your client's information. Such as e-mail address, billing address, phone numbers, and anything else that is required of them. Identity theft can come from this information as easily as credit card theft.

The history and evolution of E-commerce

History Of E-Commerce

The history of e-commerce was started in year 1960. Below is the PROCESS of e-commerce.

The BEGINNING!! (1960)

E-commerce was started from the development of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI is a set of standard that developed to exchange business information and do electronic transaction. At the beginning, there was a several different EDI format that business could use, so companies might not able to interact with each other.

AT Year 1984!!

ASC X12 standard was introduced and it is stable and reliable in transferring large amount of transaction.

DURING Year 1992!

Mosaic Web-Browser was made available, and it was the first "point to click" browser! After it has introduced Mosaic quickly get adapted into a downloadable browser.

OCTOBER 13, 1994

Netscape, provide easier access to electronic commerce. Netscape provide users with online system to do their thing online with no cost.

MAY 27, 1998: DSL Expands Across California

After a series of small-scale trials, SBC Communications took the plunge by offering high-speed Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) service to more than 200 communities throughout California. Users who had been accessing the Internet at 28.8 kilobits per second could now fly at 50 times that speed.

Christmas OF 1998!! The Big Online Holiday Extravaganza!!

With e-commerce, The holiday shopping spree lifted Amazon over the $1 billion (US$) barrier in annual sales. And AOL had sales of 1.2 billion over the 10 week holiday season from online sales.

AUGUST 10, 1999: Red Hat IPO Cements Linux' Status.

Linux gave users another choice in a platform other then Windows that was reliable and open-source. Microsoft faced with this competition needed to invest more in many things including electronic commerce.

THE MILLENNIUM!! YEAR 2000

A major merger, in early 2000, between AOL and Time Warner was another major push for electronic commerce. The merger, worth $350 million, brought together a major online company with a traditional company. In February 2000 hackers attacked some major players of e-commerce, including Yahoo, ebay and Amazon. In light of these attacks the need for improved security came to the forefront in the development of electronic commerce!

Today the largest electronic commerce is Business-to-Business (B2B). Businesses involved in B2B sell their goods to other businesses. In 2001, this form of e-commerce had around $700 billion in transactions. Other varieties growing today include Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) where consumers sell to each other, for example through auction sites. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is another form of e-commerce that allows users to share resources and files directly.

E-Commerce success and its causes

E-commerce is the process of buying and selling or exchanging products, services and information via computer networks. The reason of the Success in E-Commerce is because anyone, anywhere, anytime use of the Internet and the Web to transact business. In other word was the 365-Days Way toward E-commerce Success. These days a customer wishes to make a purchase, they expect to be able to complete a transaction online straight away in the convenience system. Because the e-commerce market has become increasingly competitive, the creator of the site will customize open-source shopping software to meet customer’s needs. They will make their catalogs with great design to persuade and attract people to make a purchase. The advantages of E-commerce are reducing cost on labor, customer services and sales support.

The Examples of E-Commerce Success

Amazon.com strives to be Earth’s most customers-centric company where people can find and discover virtually any things they want to buy online. By giving customers more of what they want in low prices, great selection and convenience. Amazon.com continues to grow and evolve as the world class. The Amazon website can offer the customers the convenience of browsing a selection of millions of books titles in the single website.

Air Asia.com is a low-cost airlines based in the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It operates scheduled domestic and international flights and is Asia’s largest low fare, no frills airline. Air Asia pioneered low cost traveling in Asia. It is also the first airline in the region to implement fully ticketless travel and unassigned seats. Its main base is the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). Its affiliate airlines Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia fly from Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Indonesia, respectively.

Dell is the world's leading computer system company. It makes computing easy by the online system. The Dell Company designs builds and customizes products and services to satisfy a range of customer’s requirements and desired. From the server, storage and professional services need of the largest global corporations, to those of consumers at home. The Dell does the business directly with customers, one at a time and believes the company will do it better than anyone on the planet.

Group's individual member self-introduction (Tan Li Ling)

My name is Tan Li Ling. I am 22 years old, currently studying in University Tunku Abdul Rahman at Bandar Sungai Long Campus which is Faculty of accountancy and management (FAM). I am taking in Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting. My hometown in penang and also called the Pearl of the Orient which is beautiful sceneries, delicious food and friendly people make Penang an exceptionally interesting place. I am a girl which is thin, long hair and quiet person. I like to cook, read magazine, online searching, watch movie and listen music. This is my first time to write the blog and feel interesting and fresh.

These are all MY MOST VISITED WEBSITES! Why I’m visiting this website that often? Reason is,
http://www.friendster.com/
I prefer to use friendster because I can find my primary, secondary school friend easily and keep in touch each other through friendster. Beside that, I can see the picture which they upload and know what they doing recently.
http://www.youtube.com/
Through this website, I always search some latest movie to watch.
http://www.viwawa.com/
This is a online games website. When free time, I will go to play some mini games with other people. It is quite interesting games.
http://www.cari.com.my/
I like this websites because it got many interesting story, picture and other gossip. It is posted by people or share their experience.
http://www.6621.com/
This is a song websites. There got many latest and oldies song. It can download and listen the song through this website online.

For my TOP FIVE INTERNET ACTIVITIES they are, sending e-mail, use the search engines to search for information, reading newspaper online, play some mini games, and chatting with friends through msn messenger.

Group's Individual Member Self Introduction (Tan Mei Wei)

My name is Tan Mei Wei, all my friends are calling me mei wei. I am 23 years old. Currently study in University Tunku Abdul Rahman. I am taking in Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting. My hometown is Penang.My hometown is a beauty island that is Penang. I am the unlucking person. Alway the bad thing will come to me but the good thing will not around me. Most of the time i like to see movie, chatting with my friend and shopping with my family i feel this is almost the girl like it and i will practice piano when i free.

The are all My Most Visited Websites.Why i am visiting this website often. Reason is

http://www.kwongwah.com.my

This is an one of the newspaper company.I log in this website because i can straight alway to know what will happen in surrounding country. This can make us save money, time and easy to use. For me because some time need to rush the assignment so not have time to go out to buy newspaper so i can through log in this web side straight alway and easy.

http://www.celcom.my

This is a telecommunication company. Every month i will pay my bill over here. So i can save the time to go to the shop to line up. It can help me to save time and easy. It also help me to get more information about the handphone model and the celcom promotion.

http://www.viwawa.com

This is an online game website. When i am free or tired, i will log in to play the game for relax. In this website it have many different game to play but i almost play the 2.5 game.Because it more easy and interesting game to me.

http://www.hotmail.com

This is an e-mail website. Through this website i can send mail and received mail from my friend. I can send e-mail and photo to my oversea friend. This can save the time because within 24hours they can received the mail from me. I also use this website to send mail to my lecturer to appointment them.

http://chinese.cari.com.my

This is an chinese forum. I use this website to up date the information, interesting story and other gossip. Almost the thing is posting with other people and we also can give commen in that.

Group's Individual Member Self Introduction (Kwan Kien Jun)

My name is Kwan Kien Jun, everyone are call me Andrew. I am 22 years old, currently pursuing in the University Tunku Abdul Rahman. I'm taking in Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting who can be the professional accountant in future. I came from Seremban. Seremban is the main town of the Negeri Sembilan. For my characteristic, I am the easy go lucky person and the funny person. I like joking and acting some funny actions that can made people laugh and smile. My hobbies are reading the megazines and online, chatting, game and glee at the internet during the free time. It was very enjoying and interesting event for fully utilize the free time. Normally I will sitting in front of the computer watching movies, download some latest MP3 songs, chatting with friends by messenger.

These are all MY MOST VISITED WEBSITES! Why I’m visiting these website that often? Reason is,


FRIENDSTER

With this friendster, i can meet and obtain lots of new friends, background of the new friends and detail information about the new friends. Beside that, it is can made me to retain all the good memory during the childhood. I prefer this website because i can keep in touch with the old friends even their contact are changed. I can upload some lifestyle of photographs for friends to look for it.


FACEBOOK

By this facebook, it was almost similar as the friendster. But facebook have provide lots of game and interested activities for user to enjoy it. I like the facebook beacuse it have the Texas Holdem Poker and Blackjack game just like the Casino. So I can gamble with the friends by this website. Anyway I also can be the King Of The Gamble for World Gamble Competition 2008.


YOUTUBE

With the youtube, I can capture the highlight of the football match like UEFA 2008. It also provide the latest information of the new movie and new trailers that coming soon. Youtube are provide movie online, anime, and music video.


SINCHEW

With the Sinchew, i can save the money of buying the newspapers. I can straight away reading the latest news that happen surrounding the country. There were SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE in China and the MYANMAR STORM. I like to read the news in the net because it was lots of colorful pictures compare to the newspapers.

MOBILE88

With the mobile88, this website is provide all the latest handphone and the functions. Sometimes I log in Mobile88 for learning the functions of the handphone and download some latest handphone software, themes, wallpapers and ringtones. Beside, it also provide the second hand price market and the latest price for you as the reference that you consider to buy or sell it.

Group’s individual member self-introduction (Sidney)

Blogger:
Hi ladies and gentlemen! My name is Sidney Teo Churn Leong, 23 years old, currently studying in University Tunku Abdul Rahman. I’m enrolling in Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting. Me, myself is a happy go lucky person, think and plan is the thing I do everyday when encounter some problems. Help others if I’m capable and day dreams always! Loves to eat delicious food! my hobby is collecting nice pictures, I’ll process it, modify it, then comes out with some nice picture and it will then stores by me for future use.beside that, sports activities that i like to stick with is swimming, playing basketball, and gym ( jus for build up my body so that can wear more nice shirt)! Normally what I do most of time is, sit with my computer which is my best partner, through "him" I search for a lots of nice pictures, information on things I’m interested like, music, movies and etc. Writing BLOG is my first experience! i get to know this kind of thing is from a singapore movie, namely "I"m not stupid 2". didn't expect will touch on BLOG before this. Well, overall BLOG is something new for me, but it is my precious experience during my University's LIFE!

These are all MY MOST VISITED WEBSITES! Why I’m visiting these website that often? Reason is,
( Notes: if you are interested at the following sites i visited, just CLICK on the pictures it will transfer you to the particular site.)

With deviantART I can obtain a lots of nice pictures, look at how those nice pictures designed and created by those artist. Besides that, I do obtain some nice brushes from there, which is for the application name Adobe Photoshop Cs2, it is good program that use by most of the people. This product is created by Adobe. i often use the application to do modification on some of my photos and pictures. Thanks to all the brushes provider from deviantART.

With you tube,

it provides me with many useful information which in video forms, with it I can understand faster than reading those long winded instruction! And with youtube I can watch movie online, anime, and watching music video.

With Excalibur Network, basically is a forum that enable players to discuss things that encounter by them inside the games, such as Raknarok Online, Lineage 2, Sagramore, and World of warcraft. It also has blogs available inside. I visit this website very often, the purpose is jus to sell or buy items inside the game, contributing ideas on how to improve the server, and do some sharing such as upload real life picture for knowing friends from other region, and do some discussion.

With Maple Story website , this is also the website for player of Maple Story to get information on the monsters, items, quest, and other information regarding to the event that held in the game. And also users can download galleries and screensaver from this website. MapleStory (Korean: 메이플스토리) is a Free of charge, 2D side-scrolling Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game developed by the South Korean company Wizet. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, and each is published by various companies such as Wizet and Nexon. Although playing the game is free, many player appearances and gameplay enhancements can be purchased from the "Cash Shop" using real money. MapleStory has a combined total of over 50 million subscriber accounts in all of its versions.

With Celcom, this is

the website for users to check their bills online and get latest promotion and news. Nevertheless, it also provides information on the company.i usually check my bills here, so that i will know how much it costs me.

For my TOP FIVE INTERNET ACTIVITIES they are, sending e-mail, use the search engines to search for valuable information, reading newspaper online, play games, and read someone else's web log or "blog" .