Voyage to the world of E-commerce

Review: New Rules for Cyber Cafe soon

2009-07-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

Oh my! If I owned a cyber cafe I might faint on the spot upon knowning the "New Rules" which will be enforced by government soon.....

Let me state the "New Rules" once again

Have to close by midnight daily.
Banned from using tinted glasses in their premises. (must be able to see through from the outside)
Only allowed to operate from the ground floor.
Those under 12 years old must be accompanied by parents or guardian and only allowed to stay up to 10.00pm.
Prohibited from providing gaming activities, gambling, pornography, music and publications with negative element.
Cigarettes and alcohol to be prohibited from being sold.
A book log to record the entry and departure time of the patron

So what is in your mind now?

Cool rules?!

Great!

or......??

Well some of the rules are actually good such as those under 12 years old must accompanied by guardian. If the cyber cafe were to comply to such rules, it would surely benefits the society and make cyber cafe a better place to hang out.

This definately is a good start to nurture our future generation to be healthy in both physically and mentally. The reputation of cyber cafe will be changed. It no longer will be the place where teachers, parents and society have negetive impression on. It would be a place to share information, makes friends, learning new technology and so on.

But in the real case, many cyber cafe has failed to comply with the current law which are been considered loose. For example, although our government has restricted students who wearing school uniform to enter into cyber cafe but there are still alot of cyber cafe which "open the door" for the people who wearing school uniform. So I was wondering that will the cyber cafe comply with the new rules that are going to be enforced in future? If so, how are they going to make business out of it?

Perhaps the only way is creativity and innovation. The cyber cafe could provide more services such as reading corner and cafeteria to cater the needs to the customers.

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Sources:
Information

http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-rules-for-cyber-cafes-soon.html

Pictures & images

http://www.candidity.org/images/cyber_cafe.jpg
http://www.steinski.com/images/display/504blog_question_mark3.jpg
www.greenovate-europe.eu/files/u25/Innovation.jpg

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia

2009-07-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

Potential and consumer adoption strategies

Mobile payment system had become most popular payment method among Malaysian. From the wikipedia, Mobile payment is new and rapidly-adopting alternative payment method – especially in Asia and Europe. Instead of paying with cash, check or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for wide range of services and digital or hard goods such as music, book, video and etc.

According to our finding, TeleMoney is the country's first mobile payment service via multi-channel access for Internet and wireless transactions and its was fully operational in the first quarter of 2002. It is a service free of banks and Telco dependence; a customer with a credit card or debit card with a cellular phone can register for this service. So, Malaysians can now enjoy a secure and convenient way to conduct mobile commerce using a GSM cellular phone.

As for the potential, mobile payment aims to foster close collaboration between banks and mobile operators to build a secure and interoperable ecosystem for mobile financial services to grow in Malaysia.

According to ABI study, it’s had examines that potential for mobile payment in four vertical markets that will drive adoption in :

-taxis

-parking

-movies

- Internet shopping.

As for the consumer adoption strategies, DiGi had offers Customers Openwave's Solutions to Incite Fun with Mobile Phones in year 2009. This secure provisioning provides better customer service while reducing operating and customer care costs.

In addition, the seamless initiation promotes service trials and encourages rapid consumer adoption. Beside that, Hotlink also offer the consumer by giving gift at certain level of purchasing or giving redemption of reward and give extra credit to customers which are Hotlink user.

As a conclusion, Mobile payment system has to be continues to development so that there are more advance and easy for us to use.

Reference:
www.telemoneyworld.com/

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

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/communications/0,39044192,39001884,00.htm

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

www.skmm.gov.my/what_we_do/Research/pdf/mdss_pr.pdf

http://www.contactlessnews.com/2008/12/09/nfc-no-answer-for-mobile-payments-but-alternatives-offer-promise

http://www.digi.com.my/aboutdigi/media/mr_press_det.do?id=64&pgPoint=1&year=2002

Corporate Blogging

2009-07-07T05:33:00.000-07:00

Corporate Blogging as a new marketing communition tools

A corporate blogging is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. Hence, it’s allow people to posts and comments which is easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads. Nowadays, a lot of major browsers such as Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 7 support RSS technology, which enables readers to easily read recent posts without actually visiting the blog and it is very useful for low-volume blogs.

There are many different types of corporate blogs, most can be categorized as either external or internal. An internal blog is generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view. The informal nature of blogs may encourage employee participation, free discussion of issues, collective intelligence, direct communication between various layers of an organization and a sense of community.

While, an external blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services (or the end of old products), to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues. It also allows a window to the company culture and is often treated more informally than traditional press releases, though a corporate blog often tries to accomplish similar goals as press releases do.

In marketing terms, a corporate blogging 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. Moreover, a corporate blog makes it easy for customers to find the latest and most accurate information about its new products and services.

Corporate blogging serves as a channel for a company and its customers to meet on common ground and to know each other more. A corporate blog allows a company to closely track the response of their customer on new product and service In addition, corporate blog conjures images of people who are passionate about their products or services and are eager to engage customers.

According to Lewis Green, “…as a way to brand myself and my business. But to be successful, my branding efforts must lead to work. Newspaper and magazine articles, as well as TV and radio guest appearances and my books have always done that. I saw no reason why blogging shouldn't be able to build my brand image, market my business philosophy and values, offer lot of free content for my readers, and lead to work. It has” he says.

Reference:
http://www.internetviz-newsletters.com/bulldog/e_article000404957.cfm

http://www.selfseo.com/story-19130.php

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/guestopinions/blog/corporate-blogging-benefits-of-interactive-marketing/?cs=22957

www.streetdirectory.com/.../blogging/corporate_blogging_dos_and_donts.html

http://www.ximnet.com.my/thelab/comments_articles/comments.asp?id=15

E-Government in Malaysia

2009-07-07T05:12:00.000-07:00

E-government defines as “the use of all information and communication technologies, from fax machines to wireless palm pilots, to facilitate the daily administration of government…” The advantages of e-government are to help government saves millions of dollars annually by decreasing spending on printing, sorting, and mailing tax materials through offering taxpayers web access to tax return forms and publications. Hence, they also reduce travel and waiting time (from in-line to on-line), introduce a more efficient payment methods, improve transparency of government’s operation, improve poor governance and reduce systemic corruption, and eventually lead to transformation of governance.

In 1997, E-government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age in Malaysia and initiated as a key factor in the national strategies to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the government operations, and improve the relationships between citizens and the state. The vision of Electronic Government is a vision for government, businesses and citizenry working together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens .

The 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are as follows;
Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
Generic Office Environment (GOE)
Electronic Procurement (EP)
Electronic Services (E-Services)
Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
E-Syariah

As for citizen’s adoption strategies, Government adopted an e-Government Policy and Implementation Strategy to ensure access to information, active citizen participation, transparent administration and simplified access to government services by making e-government services available to citizens on a 24 hour basis to creating a conducive legal environment for transformation of most of government transactions electronically.

In addition, Government should concern about ease of use, compatibility, and trustworthiness as significant factors that affecting the citizens’ intention to use the e-services. Hence, the government should also concern with the accuracy, relevancy and completeness information that provided to the citizens as the successful to implement the E-Government in Malaysia.

Beside that, government should enhance the legislation on personal data protection, privacy, and security of the citizen’s private information to be protected. At the same time, it can help to provide e-citizen education; skills and training to every citizen are ready and able to adopt online government services.

Reference:

http://www1.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm
www.it-innovations.ae/iit005/proceedings/.../G_6_IIT05-Al-Adawi.pdf
http://www.egovnews.org/
www.doi.gov/e-government/DOI%20E-Government%20Strategy.pdf
http://www.itu.int/wsis/stocktaking/scripts/documents.asp?project=1124118918&lang=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-government
http://www.mscmalaysia.my/topic/12073046901815

Review : Shiptomyplace.com

2009-07-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

Review on local,transactional e-commerce site : SHIPTOMYPLACE.COM

Shiptomyplace.com is a lot like a neighborhood toner store in Malaysia which provides a great selection of high-quality laser toner, friendly service, and of course, everyday low prices. The goal is to bring customers the best toner shopping experience for toner on the Internet.

Products:

They offer wide range of compatible/remanufactured toners for brands:

Selling System:
Fixed price (good quality at lowest price)

Payment Channel:

Online credit card :

E- banking payment :

Services provided:

-Electronic catalog with detail information of the product.

-Electronic cart enables customers to purchase more than 1 product at a time

-Product map which provides a list of all products available and the code.

-Customer can subscribe to the mailing list for latest updates, news and promotion.

- Provides printing services for business card.

Conclusion:
This website makes users convenient in a sense of purchasing printing supply without stepping out of their house yet receiving what they want by the next day. The product and services provided is guarantee for good quality at the lowest price.

Credit Card Debts

2009-07-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

Credit is the promising to spend future earnings in order to obtain a good or service today. A credit card entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder’s promise to pay for these goods and services.

Credit card can be your best friend if uses wisely but it can also be your worst enemy without proper money management which leads to credit card debt. The debt will accumulates and increases via interest and penalties and the consumer will struggle to clear the balance for the rest of the year.

Causes & Prevention:

1) Excessive spending

Spending too much on things you may not really need is likely the most common cause of amassing credit card debt. We’re living in a consumer culture, with glittery advertisements beckoning us to buy, buy, and buy around every corner. Sometimes, it can seem impossible to resist taking out that credit card and swiping it through to get what you want. But spending beyond your means will cause you to quickly become buried in debt.

So…….

To curb overspending, make a budget of your necessary expenses each month. And, most importantly, stick to it! Identify expenses that you don’t really need each month and eliminate them. Before you make an impulse buy, ask yourself, “Do I really need this? Or am I just spending money to spend money?”

2) Poor money management

Money management consists of everything from monthly budgeting to bill paying to savings and investment contributions. Dropping the ball in one area will likely cause control of your finances to slip out of your hands. For instance, if you miss paying your monthly credit card bills, you will be charged high late fees at substantially higher interest rates.

So……….

Set up an automatic bill pay transfer to take care of your monthly payments. Also, keeping a calendar (electronic or hard copy) for when your payments are due is another effective way to keep on top of your due dates.

3) Not saving or saving too little
Contributing regularly to savings account(s) is an important part of money management. If you’re contributing very little or no funds to savings, you will likely reach for your credit cards to cover any unexpected or emergency expenses

So…..

Set up an automatic monthly transfer from your checking account to a savings account

4) Choosing the wrong card

So….

Shop around and get a credit card personalized for your particular situation.

5) Not knowing the interest rate

So….

Find out the interest rate you were offered and also the interest rate the issuer actually gives you upon approval. In addition, check the rate on your monthly statements because credit card issuers can raise your rates for little or no apparent reason and with little warning.

Resources :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card
http://www.jermaineharris.com/2009/06/finance-103-credit-card-management/ http://www.3debtconsolidation.com/creditcardmistakes.
html http://www.cardratings.com/howtoavoidcreditcarddebt.html

Review on a post on E-tailing

2009-07-04T22:59:00.000-07:00

Review on "Using Touch n Go to buy fast food in Malaysia will be reality" which is one of the post of e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog.

Have you think about if one day, your wallet is run out of cash and you've drop or forgotten to bring all your credit cards and ATM card but inside there is only have one piece of Touch 'n Go card which contains about few hundred bucks inside? But again, you only aware that after you're ordered your food in a particular fast food restaurant?

Some may answer "Well, I can just cancel my order" or "Walk out from the fast food restaurant directly". Such action may create a very embarrassed situation. But from now on, I believe this will not be an issues for everyone who is the holder of Touch n Go card, we will look into it more further later.

Touch 'n Go which is a charge card that make prepayment in order to top up the value of the card. Such card which is currently being widely used in Malaysia for the toll fees collection, public tranports and parking paying device.

From April 2008 onwards, Touch n Go are available for use to purchase burger, drink, doughnut, and even movie tickets from 21 outlets which located in the Klang Valley under the pilot scheme.

Those 21 outlets which under the pilot scheme are such:

7-eleven, A&W, Caltex, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Cathay Cineleisure, and there will be more in the coming future.

By providing such service, Malaysian will slowly adopt into this cashless transaction culture. In Hong Kong, a prepaid charge card which same as Touch n Go in Malaysia called Octupus card.

For what i knew, such culture were adopt by Hong Kong citizen successfully. The Octupus card that their holding are accpeted widely within the country, no matter in retail outlet, restaurant, public transports and so on.

According to Hasni Zarina Mohamed, who is the chief operating officer of Touch n Go, stated that such adpotion is to assist and support Bank Negara's to move for a cashless society. She hope that by next year the rate of the cardholder used it for retail is about 5% to 10%.

By the way, it is a good start for providing such services in Malaysia, because we malaysian can have another alternative ways to make transcation payment beside using bank notes, coins, and credit card.

Picture below shown the purchasing of doughnuts at Dunkin Donut by using the Touch 'n Go....

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Source:
Information

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/12/nation/20902911&sec=nation
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2008/04/using-touch-n-go-card-to-buy-fast-food.htm

Pictures and images

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_AvJVkDUnTIs/SJa1xleM65I/AAAAAAAAAIY/VNhyLUfhxgo/s400/Cashless.JPG
http://www.touchngo.com.my/

Electronic currency

2009-07-04T21:38:00.001-07:00

According our study, one rare success has been Hong Kong's Octopus card system, which started as a transit payment system and has grown into a widely used electronic cash system.

Singapore also has an electronic money implementation for its public transportation system (commuter trains, bus, etc)-FeliCa.

The first attempt of e-currency implementation in Malaysia was in 1999 with the introduction of MEPS cash in Klang Valley. The facilities to reload the cards with cash was limited, the outlets where MEPS cash was accepted was also few in numbers.Another implementing e-currency in Malaysia came in the form of the Touch ‘n Go cards offered by Rangkaian Segar for toll payments and other services.

Advantage :

It’s adequately protecting the privacy rights of the customer. The existing electronic currency systems have different effects on privacy and confidentiality which vary from total anonymity to audited systems in which almost every aspect of each transaction is collected.

Disadvantages:

One of the disadvantage of electronic currency is fraud. If private key is misplaced by the consumer and used by a perpetrator to withdraw funds, the bank wouldn’t even know and the consumer would be considered liable.

Secondly is the double spending of digital coins, but this is no more a potential drawback and can occur only if the consumer chooses a peer-to-peer transaction. In other sort of transactions in this system bank can check the serial number of every coin in transaction against the database of spent coins. The transaction can be denied if the coins have been spent.

As conclusion, electronic currency has a great opportunity to transform today’s economic world and provides higher security and privacy than the present traditional forms of payment.

Reference:

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipknip

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Octopus card

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic money

http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Electronic-Currency-Trading-The-Major-Challenge-You-Must-Overcome-For-Success/1036692

www.latestbusinessupdates.com/.../electronic-currency-payment-system

http://www.giexc.com/

Review on Internet Security

2009-07-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

Review are based on "New Spamming Tactics" which posted on the My E-Commerce blog.

Spamming would be arise as irritating issues for almost everyone for us. How to consider an email is a spam mail? When you received a particular email which from the unknown source, unknown organization, or unknown person such situation may consider that the email is a spam mail. Such email would create harm to us if we simply clicked it because of our curiousity.

Although Anti-Spamware are available in current, but it is not 100% guaranteed that it will avoid your computer from receiving any spam mail. Initially, spam mail or junk mail were for the advertisement purpose because an organization would save alot of cost by advertise their product through network.

You may asked "Who is the first to send spam mail and how spam email start to spread on the network?" Well according to Brad who discussed the spamming issues in this particular hyperlink
http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html, he said that the first spam were discovered in the year 1978 which is from the marketer of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). You may not heard of DEC because this company were owned by Compaq. Previously, DEC was the leader in minicomputer market.

DEC wanted to promote his new product (DED-20), thus they decided to send a notice to everybody on the ARPANET (which previously there was a printed directory of everybody on ARPANET which they used as source for the list)

For the time being, there are several new spamming method appeared in the network, which is PDF spam, Piggyback spam, and Greeting card spam.

User may become a victim of spam in an unawareness situation, like PDF spam. Because most of the spam filter unable to screen the content of the PDF.file. Thus, users may click such PDF file and read it.

Piggyback spam come with higher graphical looking, and it create mind set for user that such mail is came from large retailers. The link contained in the email will lead to the installation of the melware or spyware once you clicked it. After that, such spam mail will send out from your computer to anothers. Such situation just like exactly the term "piggyback" because you'll turn out to be the one who carry a spam mail at your back and send it to others.

For the Greeting Card spam, it cause more harmful to us. Because it contained viruses with it. Users may not aware and click such link to see the greeting card but end up their computer will attacked by virus. If you're curious about it, and you want to give a shoot for this, make sure you have the lastest and strong anti-virus software. But such action are not recommended by me. Try at your own risk!

Here is some recommendation, before clicking any links from the unknown email. Please check where such link is directed by scroll your mouse over the link.

Stay Alert! Don't become a victim of spam mail or the lastest spam method like I mentioned above because of your curiousity.

For further knowledge of the solution by prevent yourself to become one of the victims, you make refer to this link http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-spamming-tactics.html which disccused by our Universities Senior Lecturer Mr. Hen.

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Sources:
Information

Pictures or images

The safeguard of our personal and financial data

2009-07-04T01:49:00.000-07:00

After the briefly introduction of five of the online security threat, we realize that it is important to take step to protect our information from the threat. So, we have discovered 5 steps to prevent cyber fraud.

Firstly, install and update antispyware and antivirus programs. Nowadays, many vendors offer users more advance and cheaper antispyware and antivirus program and also offer user regular updates to existing antispyware programs. As for antivirus protection, Symantec and Norton antivirus are popular choices among the online user.

Next, install a firewall which is a software program designed to allow good people in and keep bad people out. Most new computers come with firewalls integrated into their operating systems. Hence, those who have a DSL or cable modem have an added layer of protection because these modems come with yet another firewall built in.

Another method is to avoid accessing financial information in public which mean that resist logging on to check your bank balance when working from a coffee shop that offers wireless access and add password for accessing your financial information.

Besides that, updates your browser on a regular basis can help plug up security holes, so make it a habit. Do remember to look for "locks” as the web address should start with "https," instead of "http,". And, look for small lock icon in the lower-right corner of the browser window.

Last but not least, do not open mystery attachments because the attachments can contain viruses and links can lead unsuspecting users to dummy sites where they are asked to input financial information .

Reference:
http://www.bestsecuritytips.com/xfsection+article.articleid+116.htm
www.planetsoccerlive.com/index.aspx?page=privacy
https://www.suntrust.com/portal/server.pt/community/protect/1736
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/15/23_5/safe-it-security.shtml
http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/citizenship/internetsafety/onlineprivacy.mspx
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/103893/Six-Ways-to-Safeguard-Your-Online-Assets

The Threat of Online Security

2009-07-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

How Safe is Our Data ?
The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). We use internet for various purposes such as instant messaging, online banking, and files sharing. Information has being transferred in many ways. Therefore online security has become an important aspect.

Every day there are new viruses and security threats that are launched all over the Internet, our personal and financial data are getting more unsecured. In order to safeguard our data online, firstly we must have knowledge for the dangers on the Internet and how those threats can affect you, you’re PC and your information to be it personal, financial, family or business.

The five of main online security threats are:
1) Virus and Worm
Virus is a man-made computer program that infects a file or program on our computers while Worm is also a man-made program that replicates itself and it will spread itself automatically to other computers through email, over a network and via Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Both can steal addresses held in our computer to send on virus-infected emails to our friends, colleagues, clients or customers. Hence, it sends unsolicited bulk email (spam) to those in our mail address books and other users.

2) Trojan Horse
It is similar to viruses as they are one of the most destructive of the Internet and it is favored by crackers and spy ware writers. It can be programmed to automatically send any information on our PCs back to the attacker such as Credit card details, Client or customer information or other business data.

3) Spyware
It is software that is installed on our hard drive to gather information about us and our computer habits. It then transmits it through our Internet connection to a third party, usually without our knowledge or consent.

4) Tracking Cookies
When we browse web sites, the web server for the web site sends a cookie to our web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer), which it then stores on our computer hard drive. And, it often used by advertisers to track our browsing and buying habits and creates profiles of users for targeted marketing. 　

5) Hacker/Cracker
It refers to those who break security on a computer system. They can use our computers to send out spam or attack other computers on the Internet and all this can be done without our knowledge.

Reference:

1. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_online_security_threats_for_2009.php
2. http://www.tech-faq.com/online-security-threats.shtml
3. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how_to/4287844.html
4. http://www.guard-privacy-and-online-security.com/how-do-you-stay-safe-on-the-internet.html

Pishing

2009-06-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

Phishing is a type of social engineering attack in which fraudulent communications are used to trick the user into giving out sensitive information, such as passwords, bank account information and other confidential details.

A phishing attack usually involves a fake communication, supposedly from a trusted corporation or institution, which uses an alarming pretext such as "restoring access to a bank account" to pressure the user into providing their sensitive details. The communication is most commonly done via e-mail, but phishing attacks by instant messages and SMSes are also known.

Phishing e-mails can appear to be from any bank, PayPal, eBay, credit card companies, and an online retail store.

Here are few steps to spot a phishing e-mail:

1. The "From Field" appears to be from the legitimate company mentioned in the e-mail. It is important to note, however, that it is very simple to change the "from" information in any e-mail client

2. The e-mail will usually contain logos or images of the company which mentioned in the scam e-mail. These are usually GIF files taken from the authentic company’s website.

3. The e-mail will contain a clickable link with text suggesting you use the inserted link to validate your information. In the image you will see that once the hyperlink is highlighted, the bottom left of the screen shows the real Web site address to which you will go. Note that the hyperlink does NOT point to the legitimate Citibank Web site URL.

In this instance, the text you click is "here", However, this may also state something like "Log-in to Citibank" or "www.citibank.com/secure" to be even more misleading. This clickable area is only text and can be changed to anything the sender wants it to read.

4. The golden rule to avoid being phished is to never ever click the links within the text of the e-mail.

Examples of phrases to look in a phishing scam e-mails :

"Verify your account."

Businesses should not ask you to send passwords, login names, Social Security numbers, or other personal information through e-mail.

To learn more, read Fraudulent e-mail that requests credit card information sent to Microsoft customers

"You have won the lottery"

The lottery scam is a common phishing scam known as advanced fee fraud. One of the most common forms of advanced fee fraud is a message that claims that you have won a large sum of money which often includes references to big companies, such as Microsoft. There is no Microsoft lottery.

"If you don't respond within 48 hours,

your account will be closed"

These messages convey a sense of urgency so that you'll respond immediately without thinking might have been compromised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqRZGhiHGxg

The success of eBay.com

2009-06-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

eBay.com is one of the examples of successful e-commence in the World Wide Web and it also known as online auction and shopping website which operates an online person-to-person exchange in an auction format, permitting trading of personal items such as antiques, coins, and other items.

Based on the study on e-bay.com, we had discovered that many people had become millionaire just by selling item on EBay website. For instance, “the Judith Isaacson –Goldman Jewelry EBay Store Success Story”. According to Judith Isaacson, he find the global reach of the virtual world tremendously satisfying and very neat and their Customers tell them that our online presence means they can acquire goods otherwise unavailable in their small towns.

“I am in Israel, promoting and selling jewelry that is in New York, to customers around the world, without leaving the house. The process of building and handling the internet extension of our family business, and combining family, home and business brings me full circle.” says by Judith Isaacson.

The causes of the success of EBay.com are its have ability to transform many fragmented, primarily local markets into global ones at a relatively low cost to all users. Beside that, EBay appears to have growth potential by introduced new markets, such as car sales, which many thought would not be adaptable to its business model and it also meets its customer's needs better than any competing service.

Furthermore, EBay appear to bring a large number of buyers and sellers together is what has driven its growth and users can post lengthy descriptions and pictures available to a worldwide audience for price compatible. The reason of why EBay.com so successful because it allows anyone on the Internet to search not Web pages, as Yahoo or Google do, but through the physical world for objects rather than information. With the Interview of Kevin Pursglove, he says that people are like to enjoy the experience of the shopping bazaar, the hunt and looking around for merchandise. Hence, they really enjoy the competition of the bidding process as everybody likes to get a bargain and to haggle a little bit over the price.

Reference:

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

http://www.freeauctionscripts.com/ebay-success-stories/goldman-jewelry/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-bay

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/2127.html?welcome=1213184390

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2002/02/07/185014/ebays-secret-of-success.htm

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_ebay_so_successful

http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/success.html

History and Evolving of E-commerce

2009-06-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

History of E-commerce

E-commerce defined as the business process that done via computer network such as buying, selling or exchange goods, services and even information.E-commerce had been used widely around the world; it has become a current business trend that used by many organization in order to expands their market globally.

Back in the late of 1970s, E-commerce using the technology of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) which allow an organization to send out their source document such as purchase order, invoices etc electronically to client.

During year of 1979, online shopping were invented by a man called Michael Aldrich in UK

While in the year of 1980s E-commerce has growth and exist the credit card payment which widely accepted in online transaction, before that it only accept the payment of check; besides that Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and telephone banking services which offer by bank were also being introduced.As time goes on, airline reservations appear to be a part of E-commerce which introduce by Sabre in USA and Travicom in UK. Such services had benefits a lot of client who busy for doing business in different location.

From the year of 1990s, E-commerce comprised of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP), Data Mining and Data Warehousing.

In year of 1991, the first online information marketplaces include online consulting which was likely the American Information Exchange. As internet become more popular in year of 1994, but it took about five years in order to introduce the security protocols and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) which allow the continuous connection.

By the end of year 2000, many European and American business companies offer their products and services through World Wide Web. Thus people began to associate the word “E-commerce” which serves the ability to purchase goods via online.

Evolving of E-commerce

1984-EDI was standardized through ASC X12. By using this, it will guarantee that companies would able to complete transactions with one and another reliably.

1990-First web browser were wrote by using a NeXT computer by Tim Berners-Lee

1992-Product offered by company through online services. This gives a chance to people to experience purchase stuff by using their computer.

1994-Arriving of Netscape which provides users a simple browser to surf the Internet and secure online transaction technology were introduced which called Secure Sockets Layer. The first online bank opened.

1995-Big two of E-commerce companies were launched which is: Amazon.com & eBay.com

1998-DSL provides faster internet connection services. This enables people to spend more time, money in online. Besides this, electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web

2000-United State government has extended the moratorium on Internet taxes until at least 2005

2002-eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 million

2003-Amazon.com posts its first yearly profit

2008-United State E-commerce and Online Retail sales projected reached up to $204 billion

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce

http://ecommerze.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/the-history-and-evoltion-of-e-commerce/

http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/courses/nmpspring01/brown/Revstream/history.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wan896ZO4aY

Google is Changing Everything

2009-06-21T09:53:00.001-07:00

In this technology era, Google has been a well known website as an effective search engine and its related targeted-advertising tools. Google is expanding vastly by venturing into various business activities while generating huge profit.

Google aimed to deliver technologies to organize the world’s information and make it globally accessible and useful. Its attempt to the spreadsheet as a Web based application enable users to input and share data easily. Google spreadsheet enables sharing among 10 users concurrently. Google base, an online database service, is another project run by Google that can be used closely with Google spreadsheet. In addition, Google has expanded into other business activities namely software business, Web programs and more.

Furthermore, Google has partnered with an IT consulting firm, BearingPoint, to provide enterprise search capabilities that will identifies and enables specific content across the enterprise to be indexed, searched and displayed to authorized users.

Enterprise search offers familiar search interface for accessing strategic enterprise information to retrieve answers with a simple keyword search. An example of this would be the case of Kaiser Permanente (Kaiserpermanente.org). Kaiser utilized the use of Google Search Appliance to enable 150000 documents being indexed across the Kaiser network. Doctors and nurses will be able to use this search engine to help them reach diagnoses and specify treatments, check the side effects of new medications, and consult clinical research studies and other medical publications.

The point mentioned above shown the changes and evolved of Google which is from a search engine that slowly expanded to provides more than a normal search engine browser can do.

Sharing :

We would also like to share another updates of Google here:

On 29th May 2009, Google made history with their 90-minutes Google Wave Developer Preview session. Google Wave is ultimately going to change the entire face of the emerging Social Web, so it affects every individual and organization that relies on social networking for their information sharing and marketing. Beyond the obvious impact on the Social Web, Google Wave is also going to change aspects of every business that currently relies on communication and collaboration tools of any sort.

Source:

Turban, E., King, D., McKay, J., Marshall, P., Lee, J., & Viehland, D., (2008).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

The Failure of Webvan.com

2009-06-21T08:36:00.001-07:00

Not every business is profitable. This has been reflected by the case of webvan.com as it is one the example of failure on the world of e-commerce.Webvan.com was a US online grocery founded by Louis Borders at 1999 which aimed to revolutionize the grocery business by taking orders online and delivering to customers' homes. Webvan.com grew and expanded vastly by offering good customer service via providing online representative to directly communicate with the customer. Unfortunately the company went down in year 2001 by layoff 2000 worker and this marked an end for one of the most ambitious attempts to create a viable online retailer.

One of the causes for Webvan.com’s fall is the exponential growth of the company in short period. The company has focused on short term profit rather than long term. Webvan.com has ignored the growth and market share which were important component to success in long term. It expanded the business too quickly into unfamiliar areas where they leveraged their business too liberally. This is shown by its move for expansion into 26 cities coverage market within a two to three year time. It had not attracted enough customers to justify its spending and to sustain its business operation.

In addition, Webvan.com has spent a huge amount on constructing infrastructure for expansion purpose. Webvan.com signed a $1 billion contract to build a string of high tech warehouse. By then, the company’s spending had exceeded its earning. This investment was greater then the company’s sales growth and affected the company’s financial liquidity. The management decision to purchase over one of its major competition has further worsen the liquidity problem of the company.

Finally, the company closed down in July 2001 after struggling financially for sometime.

Reference:

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/947.html

www.swdsi.org/swdsi06/Proceedings06/Papers/EC01.pdf

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

http://www.foodnavigator.com/Financial-Industry/The-online-grocer-Webvan-closed-down

http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/internet-technology/837414-1.html

http://news.cnet.com/Webvan-delivers-its-last-word-Bankruptcy/2100-1017_3-269594.html?tag=news.1

About me_ victor woo

2009-06-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

My name is Victor Woo Kok Keong, 22 years old. Currently, I am studying Accountancy inUniversity Tunku Abdul Rahman. My hobbies are playing basketball and swimming which I usually do it twice per week. My house located at Kepong Baru which near shop lot and pasar. Beside that, my ambition is to become the most famous CEO in worldwide.

The top 5 website that I visited the most are google, yahoo, msn, encyclopedia and gougou. The reason I choose this website because they make me more convenient in searching article, journal, image, report and information which are useful for my assignment. Moreover, yahoo allows me to discover what have happen in the world outside. In addition, it allows me to download new song by log in to http://www.gougou.com/ as free of charge. Another reason I visited these 5 websites most is because they are popular among my friends too.

In my opinion, the top 5 internet activities that most people will do are Messenger which allows them to stay in touch with their friend and have discussion about the assignment. Secondly, playing online games such counterstrike, sudden attack and so on are also one of the popular activities among internet users. Besides that, downloading song and movie are one of the favorite pass times for the internet users too. Nowadays, more and more people are downloading news song and movie from different website due to the fact that they watch the latest movie, drama online without any charge.

Next, is online shopping. Now internet is making many people more convenience in doing business as they can buy or sell clothes, computer etc even they stay at home. Beside that, government also design website that allow citizens to pay the traffic fine, check account in KWSP, pay water and electric bill. Hence, Bank industry also their client to do online banking as make them convenience in transfer money. Last but not least is blogging which allow some of them to share their view about society and to release their feeling about what they have faced.

A little about me - winnie

2009-06-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

I've been starring at the screen for a while trying to figure out where, when, what and how should I begin. All because I've so much things to share and yet it's all clustered up.

Wenyi is my name but my some of classmates call me winnie too.I'm an undergraduate from University Tunku Abdul Rahman who is currently pursuing my Accountancy degree. Many may asked "why accounts?" For me, simply because it's challenging yet appealing to me. I'm passionate in what I do because we all need passion for what we pursue in life. Passion is to have heart and with that one can accomplish anything.

Apart from my studies, my greatest passion will be sports.From a spectator to player, I'd like to be in each and every of these roles. For me, Sports itself is an international language with no boundaries. Mega events like Olyimpic has shown the world the power of Sports to unite people and demostrate the strength and courage of mankind. Therefore I'll be a potato couch when there is any of these mega sports event going on around the world. The best moments that I have is to experience the atmosphere live. My ultimate dream is to be a spectator of Olympic to be able to experience the Olympic spirit and withness the creation of world records.

In addition to sports, one of my daily activity is to surf the internet. Internet has provided a convinient platform for me to get hold of the latest updates in the sports world. I do joined forums and had makes friends of same interest along the way. So one of my most visited website is www. badmintonforum.com which serve as a channel for all the badminton lovers to have discussion and sharing session together.

Besides that, Facebook is one the 'must log in' website for me as I've uncounsiously nurtured the habit of checking the updates of my friends daily through this online social network. Google to me serve like a "Book of Answers" which basically contains every single piece of information that we need. As for formal communication and sharing of interesting message, Hotmail and Gmail will be my choice.

One of the internet activities that has been a social norm in this modern age will be Messenger. It has served as a communication tool that gradually replacing the traditional way of phone calling. I am a faithful user to messenger too simply because I can easily stay in touch with my overseas friends and people whom I dont get to see them often.

That's all for now.Til then, see you!

-On life's vast ocean diversly we sail.
Reasons the card, but passion the gale-

Introduction - chee weng

2009-06-10T01:38:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

My name is Yoon Chee Weng, who is the class representative for BAC Group 8. Time flies extremely fast and currently I’m studying in Year 3 trimester 1. I am all in for basketball, online gaming, and listening to my favorite songs. The main purpose of having this blog is because one of the subject for this semester which is E-Commerce that required us to post our work here as part of our assignment.

In daily, I log into Hotmail in order to check my email, send email to my friend and so on. Google is very useful for me in searching for information regard my assignment; basically I can do everything in Google to keep myself up to date. I’m quite active in joining E-community society, thus I will login to Facebookand Friendster to see whether got any new friend comes and approaches me, play around with friend via online, catch up with them, and share my thought to my friends. Lastly, I’ll log into Lowyat.net to keep myself up to date for the latest electronic gadget and technology. Beside that, I also like to access the forum of lowyat.net to read the post from other users to see what topic they discuss around.

Internet is a very convenient tool for communication and leisure. It has becoming part of my life. Most of the time I use internet to communicate with my friend who we seldom meet up in order to maintain our friendship and so on by using Window Messenger, MSN in short. Besides making new friends by using internet, shopping also can be done thru internet. This creates no boundaries if I want to buy stuff in oversea for example US, UK, Australia…..

There is so much fun to be found in the internet, I can download latest song, watch movie, video or even listening to radio. In short, internet is linked with everything for me.

Next, let’s proceed to the introduction of my group member for E-commerce assignment. This group consists of three people, which is me myself, Ong Wen Yi a.k.a. Winnie and lastly, Woo Kok Keong a.k.a. “uncle”.

Since, Winnie is the only girl in our group; therefore I and Kok Keong treasure her as someone who is very important. Winnie is very smart and capable to handle tasks; normally she gave us many good ideas that help us to work further. I knew Winnie since few years back, when I’m studying in UTAR foundation year. My first impression toward her is “Whoa, this girl looks so cool, better don’t mess with her.” But in further of knowing about her, I’ve found that actually she is a very nice and kind person that will melt you down. Besides that, she is also a person who’s friendly and independent.

Next is our oldest member in group, Kok Keong aka uncle. I knew uncle during Foundation as well. Everyone’s impression on uncle is a person who always looks so cools in our class and seldom joins the classmate for outing. In fact, he is a kind person although his appearance doesn’t looks like one. When I face some problem, I will look for him as my consultant. He did give me good advice sometimes.

As the time goes on, we manage to understand each other well due to grouping together as a team in completing assignment for other subjects. This allows us to work well in handling tasks effectively and efficiently. Thus we are able to perform better and faster in each of the assignment. Lastly, I’m really glad that I have the chance to know both of them and work with them as a team.

-weng-