Review A Local E-commerce Site

E-commerce site
Public Bank Berhad is one of the most formidable banks in Malaysia. It is the fifth largest company in Malaysia by billions of market capitalization. The Founder and Chairman of Public Bank is Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow. It has strong corporate governance and a corporate culture which are committed to excellence. Under the corporate banking services, Public Bank is a market leader in consumer banking and retail commercial lending to SMEs in Malaysia.

Establishment of Public Bank’s website has given more convenience to internet users. Public bank’s website at http://www.phebank.com.my/ provides a wide range of information about the company such as corporate information, Board of Directors, senior management, corporate mission, corporate structure and product and services. The provision is actually assisting the users such as potential investors to have a better understanding of the company.

In addition, the provision of the website of Public Bank has rendered significant impacts on customers. Customers can actually get updated by surfing the website. Customers can also search the information such as financing loan, interest charges and the current promotions.

Other than that, customers can utilize their e-banking services. Customers are given opportunity to check their saving balances and credit card debts through the website. Furthermore, customers are allowed to settle their debts or make payments through the website by just using the password.

http://www.publicbank.com.my/

Prevention of E-Auction Fraud

E-Auction is defined as a bidding market mechanism where buyers compete to grad the desired products at low price.Ebay.com is one of the popular auction websites where users can get the products for low price. However, fraud aspect should be taken into consideration before bidding the products.

One of the examples of e-auction fraud is bid shielding. Bid shielding is one of the ways to mislead the real bidders. Fake participant starts bidding with very high price and they quit the bidding at last minute. The real bidder who bid for low price will eventually pay for it. The purpose is to mislead the real buyer’s concentration to their products.

There are a few ways of preventing e-auction fraud. First of all, users are highly encouraged to get a better understanding on the running of e-auction such as knowing the obligations of buyer and seller. In addition, Users are advised to utilize identification verification for safety purposes. In other words, disclosure of personal data to outsiders is totally discouraged.

Users can ask for warranty or insurance policy for assurance if there is any problem on item purchases. Moreover, users can review the feedback rating of the seller. Logically thinking; buyers will not bid on the items if the particular sellers have notorious feedback. In order to avoid any redundant cost, users are advised to read the information about the shipping and handling fees carefully. Clarification must be made before bidding is started.

Related Articles: How to prevent e-auction fraud and how to avoid online auction fraud

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

The Electronic Government initiative in Malaysia was launched to lead the country
into the Information Age. It has improved both 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;

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

1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
- Online system that monitors the entire lifecycle of national programs, i.e. from project application to approval to implementation, mid-term review and completion.

2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
- HRMIS is an integrated, technology enabled Human Resource Management Information System for the Malaysian Public Service, incorporating Global Best Practices in HR that would enable the Public Service to successfully deal with the Challenges of the K-Economy.

3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
- Powerful document and office management solution that enables users to effectively and efficiently manage their office environment. It is fully web-based and has been customized based on local developed package, DRDok.

4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
- An electronic procurement system, which enables suppliers to sell goods and services to the Government through the Internet. Suppliers “open shop” on the World Wide Web, advertise their goods, present their pricing, process orders and deliveries.

5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
- E-Services is one of the pilot projects under the Electronic Government Flagship within the
Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) initiative. With E-Services, one can now conduct transactions with Government agencies, such as the Road Transport Department (RTD) and private utility companies such as Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) through various convenient channels.

6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
-ELX is one stop-centre for labor market information, as supervised by the Ministry of Human Resource (MOHR), to enable employers and job seekers to communicate on the same platform.

7. E-Syariah
- e-Syariah is the seventh project under the Electronic Government flagship application of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). A case management system that integrates the processes related to management of cases for the Syariah Courts.

In order for citizens to adopt e-government services, there are several criteria that must be meet. First of all, citizens must be educated on how to use the services available in e-government website. Secondly, government must make sure that the web design must be clear and not only to build relationship with the visitors, but also to enhance their experience. These features give visitors a sense of control and participation and could potentially enhance their adoption. And lastly, the service quality of e-government must be good to build confidences among the users. Some measurements that can be used is the speed of the response to the citizens concerns with problem solving approach, and the availability of names.

references link(s):
http://www.gov.my/

www.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm

Corporate blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. Corporate blogging is being used as a new marketing communication tool for companies. Corporate blogging can provide clear guidelines of overall marketing or communication strategy to its employees and third parties. In other ways, blogs are fast way to join the customers' discussions, provide tips and insights or receive feedback, thus they improve the customer relationship.


Advantages of corporate blog:
Corporate blogging give the writer an opportunity to answer critics in a controlled forum. Good blogs may even effectively use moderated comments to allow users of the product to post feedback and effectively use links to take visitors to other sites that they would find helpful. Beside that, posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads.

Disadvantages of corporate blog:
However, corporate blogging might make it easy for defamation and invasion of privacy or to breach information security and loss of company confidentiality. In addition, the corporate blog can be tricky to drag public comment out of a company without first routing through the sanitizing filter of a press office and there is a risk that an ill-judged comment could be seized upon by the media or disgruntled investors.

Examples of corporate blog include:
Company Blog (eg.Google, Adobe, Flickr, Facebook, and Yahoo! Search), CEO Blog (eg.Sun CEO), Industry Blog and Department or Product Blog (eg.Microsoft Community Blogs). Although there are many different types of corporate blogs, most can be categorized as either external or internal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog
http://www.enterpriseblogs.info/corporate-blogging/disadvantages
http://www.enterpriseblogs.info/corporate-blogging/advantages

Mobile Payments Service

Mobile payment which is also known as mobile web payment or WAP billing is a point of sale payment made through a mobile device. It is also a collection of money from a customer via mobile devices such as Smartphone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), mobile devices and other devices. In addition, mobile money is one of mobile payment services. Mobile money is money in mobile. It enables users to make payment on spot as well as render convenience to users to purchase products such as cinema tickets and air tickets by following short messaging service (SMS) instructions.
In year 2007, Maxis Communications Berhad is on trialing to provide a mobile phone multi payment service incorporating credit card and prepaid transits payment with the co-operation of Maybank, Visa International and Touch `n Go. This technology is only available on Nokia 6131 which is a Near Field Communication (NFC) phone. It allows users to touch their handsets against contactless payment readers to make purchase. It is stated that Malaysia was the first market in Asia Pacific region to offer Visa contactless payment. From that case, the mobile payment service is developing well in Malaysia.
Following are the potentials of mobile payment service:
a) There is still an enormous market shares available in mobile industry.
b) Mobile payment service in Malaysia is still under developing stage.
c) Increase of adoption of mobile payment services due to the increase of mobile phone users.

Following are the strategies of mobile payment service:
a) Increase customer satisfaction and maintain their loyalty.
b) Add value to customer by enhancing security and confidence to mobile users.
c) Educate customers the usefulness of mobile payments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_payment
http://www.mobile88.com

Electronic Currency

Electronic currency, also known as electronic cash, e-money, digital currency and etc. It refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic money.
You cannot take this money into your hands, count with your fingers or sense its. However, it is real. Electronic money functions also prove its full value. It is the measure of value, payment means, means of circulation and (to a lower extent) means of hoarding. It meets all requirements stipulated for the world finance. That is why, electronic money are used as international payment unit.

The basic feature of electronic money from legal point of view is its emission. The number of electronic money shall be guaranteed with cash. Legislation and civil law of some countries have not yet establish some rules regulating the emission. Thereby, virtual money is still considered electronic monetary obligation of the issuer. The issuer is, mainly, the banks. As banks are not very trusted sometimes so the electronic money use is thus far limited. Government, for its part, issues cash and is very trusted by population and businessmen.

Although digital cash can provide many benefits such as convenience and privacy, increased efficiency of transactions, lower transaction fees, new business opportunities with the expansion of economic activities on the Internet, there are many potential issues with the use of digital cash. The transfer of digital currencies raises local issues such as how to levy taxes or the possible ease of money laundering. There are also potential macroeconomic effects such as exchange rate instabilities and shortage of money supplies (total amount of digital cash versus total amount of real cash available, basically the possibility that digital cash could exceed the real cash available).

Electronic currency has to overcome several obstacles in order to evolve further, 1) being able to use it through a wider range of hardware such as secured credit cards; and 2) linked bank accounts that would generally be used over an internet means, for exchange with a secure micropayment system such as in large corporations (PayPal).

references link(s):

http://www.e-money.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_money

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

Nowadays, pre-paid cash card become common use in our life. Pre-paid cash card is similar as debit card. Before purchase goods or services, the users need to reload money to make payment. It is very convenience for users, more common know by people is touch n go.

The pre-paid cash cared application for consumers include:

1. Drivers can use touch n go to pay toll at all highways in Malaysia, and railways station. It helps users save time because it’s just need to scan and without queue up to purchase ticket. Some of the shopping center allow use touch n go to pay parking ticket.

2. Paying bill like Rent, utilities, insurance, car payment, and cell phone bills can be paid instantly.

3. Recently have numbers of retailer accept pre-paid cash card use to pay buys fuel at the pump, pay by phone, and shop on the Internet.

4. For some prepaid cash card they provide the service Transferring money to friends or family between cards.

5. Withdrawing cash from an ATM at any time.

6. Used as a replacement for travelers’ cash or travel cheques.


In HK, there is the application of a pre-paid cash card called the Octopus card.It is widely used in payment system for transportation, car parks, supermarkets, fast food restaurant and other pint of sale application. Mainly there are two types of Octopus cards, the on-loan card and the payment for airport transport and on-loan card have six categories offered by the company. They can add money to through Add Value Machines.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card
http://www.hong-kong-travel.org/Octopus.asp

The aplication of 3rd Party Certification Programme in Malaysia

Third party certification program is a procedure by which an authoritative body gives formal recognition that a body or person is competent to carry out specific tasks. The third party who issues the digital certificate to verify and authenticate the website is called certificate authorities (CA). Certification Authority is a trusted third party in a public key security system which is responsible for providing the identity of users and issuing them with certificates.

Since there are threats of internet security spreading over the internet nowadays, it is important to gain the certification from third party in order to ensure that our information transmitted over internet reaches the destinations safely. Besides, certification is needed because it assures users with e-mail protection and validation as well as security of online shopping in order to avoid from hacked and attacked by malicious software such as Trojan, virus and worms. Upon the provision of 3rd party certification program in Malaysia, users will be able to transact through the internet safely.

MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd is the company that provides the third party program in Malaysia. According to the history, MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd was established in 1999 as a licensed Certification Authority (CA) operating within the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia under the Digital Signature Act 1997(DSA), a Malaysia law that sets a global precedent for the mandate of a certificate authorities. The objective of Trustgate is to secure the open network communications and become the catalyst for the growth of e-commerce, both locally and across the ASEAN region. In addition, the vision of Trustgate is to enable organizations to conduct their business securely over the internet.

Moreover, Trustgate provides digital certification services such as digital certificates, cryptographic products and software development.Other than that, the provision of products and services of Trustgate are SSL Certificate, Managed PKI, Personal ID, MyTRUST, MyKAD ID, SSL VPN, Managed Security Services, VeriSign Certified Training and Application Development.

http://www.msctrustgate.com/

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

Twenty years after the release of the Morris Worm, one of the first worms discovered on the Internet, the Web has proven to be the primary place where bad guys lurk, looking for poorly secured websites to plant malicious code. The threats from online Web have only been increasing over the years.

According to the SANS Institute (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security Institute), the top six 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. 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.

Web browsers. A Web browser contains many vulnerabilities. Common exploits may include disclosure of "cookies" with personal information, the execution of rogue code that could compromise a system, and exposure of locally-stored files. Configuring the browser's security settings for a setting higher than the default value will prevent most Web browser attacks.

File sharing applications. Peer-to-peer (P2P) programs are commonly used to share files. In a P2P system, computers are open to others in the P2P network to allow for all participants to search for and download files from one another. Many corporation forbid use of P2P networks because of the obvious risk of compromised data.

Cyber criminals will always be ahead of security experts simply because most of what the anti-malware providers discover is generally published for the public; the bad guys aren't as open with what they do. But, being aware of trends, keeping security patches up to date, and installing firewalls will help us to prevent falling prey to online threats..

references link(s):
http://www.onlinesecurity-guide.com/

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-primary-online-security-threats.htm

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Nowadays, credit card debts become a serious problem to many people. Credit cards have convenience to us and improve our security when shopping or traveling, but if we misuse credit card it will increase user liabilities

Why credit will lead to people owe huge liabilities? How can we prevent it? Let me discuss to

u all…

Causes:
The major reason cause credit card debt is people only pay the minimum amount and interest, they won’t pay full amount on their spending. The debt will keep increasing. Penalty and high interest will give to user if their late pay or unpaid. Some companies charge yearly membership fees of anywhere from $20 to $100.

People have lost their job, but sundry expenses still need to spend. Without income can’t cover spending. Price of goods and services keep increasing but income reduce or no changing.

Poor money management also a reasons increase credit card debts. Without budget spending plan, we can’t control our spending. We need clear our sundry expenses and extra expenses.

Prevention:
Have to create budget on your spending, try reducing spending and avoiding some unnecessary spending. Monthly income must can cover spending and save fixed amount money into bank

Reduce chances use credit card, pay cash rather than use credit card. It just use for emergencies purpose.

Try paying the full amount on monthly spending, don’t let credit card’s companies charge penalty to your spending. Always check your spending list and spend below income.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_debt

http://www.debtcause.com/

http://www.credit-land.com/articles/articles_page_68600_1881780_120.php

How to safeguard our personal and financial data

Nowadays, computer and internet is very common for every person. Sometimes we will use internet help we do some financial transactions such as online banking. We need access thorough our personal information and financial data; this will lead to security problem. Hackers have the ability to intercept and use that data.

How can avoid this kind of problem to protect our confidential data? How can we do improve our internet security and decrease data stolen probability? There are some suggestions stated in below:

1. Use combination of number and letters create a strong password and PINs to protect access data.
2. Avoid downloading information from unknown websites and accessing financial information in public such as free wireless in cafe.
3. Use and update antivirus and antispyware software such as Symantec and Norton antivirus, AVG antivirus to avoid hackers intercept data.
4. Install firewall program to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network connected to the Internet. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.
5. Use a legitimate anti-spyware program to scan your computer and remove any of the infected files.
6. avoid giving personal information to unknown parties, although he/she is your friends



http://www.ehow.com/how_2065985_safeguard-personal-information-work-computer.html
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/safeguard-personal-information-online-1282.
php
http://www.internetrti.com/support/rti2000/kb/webhelp/RTI_kb/Password_and_Encryption_
Key_Safeguard_Financial_Data_Transmitted_Across_RTInet.htm

History and Evolution of E-commerce

Electronic commerce (EC) describes the manner in which transactions take place over networks, mostly the Internet. It is the process of electronically buying and selling goods, services and information. Certain E-commerce applications such as buying and selling stocks and airline tickets on the internet has grown rapidly result in exceeding non-Internet trades.

E-commerce is not just about buying and selling but also the process of electronically communicating, collaborating, and discovering information .It is about e-learning, e-government and social networks. Furthermore, EC-commerce provides impacts on significant portion of the world such as affecting businesses, professions and people.

Development of E-commerce applications started in the early 1970s with the introduction of electronic funds transfer (EFT), which refers to the computer-based systems that is used to perform financial transactions electronically. However, these applications are limited to financial institutes and large corporations.

Electronic data interchange (EDI) was then developed in the late 1970s in order to improve the limitation of electronic funds transfer. Electronic data interchange enlarged the pool of participating company from manufacturers, retailers, services, and others. These systems were then called Inter-organizational System (IOS).An Inter-organizational System (IOS) allows the flow of information to be automated between organizations to reach a desired supply-chain management system, which enables the development of competitive organizations.

From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.
E-commerce has begun before personal computers were prevalent and well known in the world.
As time goes by, it has eventually grown into multi-billion industry. Following are the examples of evolution of E-commerce:

In the year 1984, EDI which is electronic data interchange, was standardized through ASC X12. This guarantees that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another reliably.

In the year 1992, CompuServe offers online retail products to its customers. This gives people the first chance to buy things through their computer.

In the year 1994, arrival of Netscape has provided users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer.

In the year 1995, two of the biggest names in e-commerce are launched such as Amazon.com and eBay.com.

In the year 1998, DSL which is Digital Subscriber Line provides fast Internet service to subscribers across California. This prompts people to spend more time and money through online.

In the year 1999, retail spending over the Internet reached $20 billion according to Business.com.

In the year 2000, the U.S government has extended the moratorium on Internet taxes until at least year 2005.

The term electronic commerce was coined in the early of year 1990s when Internet became commercialized and users began flocking to participate in the World Wide Web. E-commerce applications were then rapidly expanded.

E-commerce is possibly introduced from the Telephone Exchange Office. The earliest example of many-to-many EC in physical goods was the Boston Computer Exchange where is a marketplace for used computers that launched in year 1982. The first online information marketplace which including online consulting was likely the American Information Exchange.

http://ict.cdimm.org/man/engleza/ecomm03.pdf
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles6/world-wide-web-evolution.htm

Success of E-Commerce and causes

Google Inc is one of the examples for e-commerce success. Google Inc. is an American public corporation which manage to earn revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. The Google headquarters, which is Googleplex, is located in Mountain View, California The company has 20,222 full-time employees as at 31st December 2008

Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanfor University and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. The initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004, raising US$1.67 billion, making it worth US$23 billion. Google has continued its growth through a series of new product developments, acquisitions, and partnerships. Environmentalism, philanthropy and positive employee relations have been important tenets during the growth of Google, the latter resulting in being identified multiple times as Fortune Magazine's #1 Best Place to Work. The unofficial company slogan is "Don't be evil", although criticism of Google includes concerns regarding the privacy of personal information, copyright, censorship and discontinuation of services.

Causes
Following are factors for the success of Google in the industry:

Technology. Along with its innovative approach to page ranking, Google is a purpose-built hardware company, building all its own servers from components it buys directly for their manufacturers. Nowadays, Google operates the world's largest distributed computer system.

Business Model Innovation. By perfecting the nature of targeted advertisements, Google has not only created a highly effective revenue generator, but also produced what it hopes to be a better experience for its users. It is Google's goal to make their targeted advertisements to be relevant and useful to users as the search would render them results.

Brand A European study recently determined Google to be the number one most recognized worldwide brand. Indeed, Google has become a verb ("I can't wait to get home and Google him") which poses real challenges to a company seeking to protect the strength of its mark.

Focus On The User Experience. Product decisions at Google are driven by optimizing for the user experience first and for revenue second. The folks at Google firmly believe that the better the user experience, the more easily money will follow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
http://ventureblog.com/articles/2003/05/4_keys_to_googl.php

Phishing and Its Prevention Methods

Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. A typical method of phishing is the use of fraudulent e-mails and Web sites to lure consumers into sharing personal and financial information. Criminals are sending out millions of “urgent” e-mails trying to get unsuspecting consumers to divulge personal information such as their Social Security numbers or the passwords for their online accounts. Besides sending fraudulent emails, phishing can also be found in popular social web sites (YouTube, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger), auction sites (eBay), online banks(online payment processors (PayPal), or IT Administrators (Yahoo, ISPs) are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting.

Phishing can cause denail of access to e-mail to substantial financial loss. It is estimated that between May 2004 and May 2005, approximately 1.2 million computer users in the United States suffered losses caused by phishing, totaling approximately US$929 million. Experts has recommended several prevention methods to overcome phishing.

Browsers alerting users to fraudulent websites
Microsoft's IE7 browser, Mozilla Firefox 2.0, Safari 3.2, and Opera all contain this type of anti-phishing measure. Firefox 2 used Google anti-phishing software. Opera 9.1 uses live blacklists from PhishTank and GeoTrust, as well as live whitelists from GeoTrust.

Eliminating phishing mail
Specialized spam filters can reduce the number of phishing e-mails that reach their addressees' inboxes. These approaches rely on machine learning and natural language processing approaches to classify phishing e-mails.

Password Rescue
This approach this proposed by Dinei Florencio, Cormac Herley in microsoft research. First, microsoft make no attempt to prevent information leakage. Rather, it try to detect and rescue users from the consequences of bad trust decisions. Second, microsoft harness scale against the attacker instead of trying to solve the problem at each client. The scheme increases in efficiency with the scale of deployment: it offers very little protection if a small fraction of users participate, but makes phishing almost impossible as the deployment increases.

Augmenting password logins
This is usually used by the banking industry. A bank's website ask users to select a personal image, and display this user-selected image with any forms that request a password. Users of the bank's online services are instructed to enter a password only when they see the image they selected.

references link(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci916037,00.html

Boo.com’s Failure as an E-commerce Company

There are many very successful and e-commerce companies such as eBay, google, Yahoo, etc in the recent years. These mega organizations has redefined the way that big businesses should be venturing into and they makes multi-billions dollars of profits over the years. However, there are also some infamous e-commerce companies that failed miserably during the dot.com boom in the 1990s.

Boo.com was a European company founded in 1998 and operating out of a London head office, which was founded by three Swedish entrepreneurs, Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin. Malmsten and Leander had excellent previous business experience in publishing where they created a specialist publisher and had also created an online bookstore, bokus.com, which in 1997 became the world’s third largest book e-retailer behind Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 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 months, it was placed into receivership on 18 May 2000 and liquidated.

There are several causes of boo.com failure that had been identified and studied:

Problems with user experience and technology visibility
The site relied heavily on JavaScript and Flash technology to display pseudo-3D views of wares. The first publicly released version of the site was fairly hefty—the home page alone was several hundred kilobytes which meant that the vast majority of users had to wait minutes for the site to load. The complicated design required the site to be displayed in a fixed size window, which limited the space available to display product information to the customer. Navigation techniques change as the customer navigate into different section of the website, which appealed to those who were visiting to see the website but frustrated those who simply wanted to purchase clothes.

Timing
The fundamental problem was that the company was following an extremely aggressive growth plan, launching simultaneously in multiple European countries. This plan was founded on the assumption of the ready availability of venture capital money to see the company through the first few years of trading until sales caught up with operating expenses. Such capital ceased to be available for all practical purposes in the second quarter of 2000 following dramatic falls in the NASDAQ presaging the "dot crash" following the Dot-com bubble.

Bad Cost Control
Boo.com's founders famously spent their way through £125 million ($188 million) in just six months. Boo.com's sales did not match expectations, due partly to the very high number of products returned by customers. Poor management and a lack of communication between departments resulted in costs spiraling unchecked—the effectiveness of an eye-catching (and expensive) ad campaign was limited. Staff and contractors were recruited in large numbers, with a lack of direction and executive decision about how many and what were required. This resulted in a crippling pay-roll cost. One contractor alone was reputed to be earning over £100 an hour.

The boo.com case remains a valuable case study for all types of businesses, since it doesn’t only illustrate the challenges of managing E-commerce for a clothes retailer, but rather highlights failings in E-commerce strategy and management that can be made in any type or organization.

references link(s):

http://www.witiger.com/ecommerce/dotcomfailures.htm

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/45542.html

Revenue Models for Google, Amazon.com & eBay

Google’s revenue model include Google AdWords, Pay per Click Advertising, Google AdSense, Froogle, GoogleAnswers and their latest advertising program which is Cost per Click model. This program includes local, national, and international distribution. Most of the revenue is from advertising, which allow other website owners to advertise on their search result pages.

For eBay revenue model is online auction, this system is allow the buyers bid for products and services over the internet. EBay’s revenue increases with seller surplus. The way they earn revenue is from fees charged to list items up, picture service fees, listing upgrade fees, final value fees and reservation. Amazon.com like an online-shopping centre, participants will browse the web site looking at the product which they interest.


All of them have their own benefit. First we talk about Google; people can immediately get the related information and looking the advertisement from Google AdWords. Advertiser can satisfy people needs about the product and services. The other benefit is PPC easily control costs, because people only pay when they click the advertisement. Beside that, this enables advertisers easily to sign up and manage an account online.

EBay is very convenience for bidders, since we can be bids at any places. Bidders also increase large volume cause of this benefit. This system provide globalization benefit, which the sellers and buyers require can be internet access, no manner which place there be. This will increase the competitiveness in the world. Because of the potential for a low price, the broad scope of products and services available, the easy way of access, and the social benefits of the auction process, there are large number of bidders.

Whereas for Amazon.com, is allows user to submit reviews to the web page of each product. We can know more the product quality since they have rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars and the users are allows commenting on reviews. Amazon is pioneer affiliate partnership marketing. An Amazon partner website can display Amazon books directly on their website, and sends customers to the Amazon’s website when the visitor is ready to buy it. Amazon also pays a commission for the sale to the site owner.



http://www.organicspam.com/google_revenue_model.asp
http://content.websitegear.com/article/revenue_introduction.htm