Electronic commerce, e-commerce or eCommerce Timeline
eCommerce Development Timeline:
- 1990: Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a NeXT computer.
- 1992: J.H. Snider and Terra Ziporyn publish Future Shop: How New Technologies Will Change the Way We Shop and What We Buy. St. Martin's Press.
ISBN 0312063598.
- 1994: Netscape releases the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla. Pizza Hut offers pizza ordering on its Web page.
The first online bank opens. Attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online. Adult materials also becomes commercially
available, as do cars and bikes. Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late 1994 SSL encryption that made transactions secure.
- 1995: Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com and the first commercial-free 24 hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio start
broadcasting. Dell and Cisco begin to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions. eBay is founded by computer programmer Pierre
Omidyar as AuctionWeb.
- 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.
- 1999: Business.com sold for US $7.5 million to eCompanies, which was purchased in 1997 for US $149,000. The peer-to-peer filesharing software
Napster launches. ATG Stores launches to sell decorative items for the home online.
- 2000: The dot-com bust.
- 2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion. Niche retail companies CSN Stores and NetShops are founded with the concept of selling products
through several targeted domains, rather than a central portal.
- 2003: Amazon.com posts first yearly profit.
- 2007: Business.com acquired by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million.
- 2008: US eCommerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $204 billion, an increase of 17 percent over 2007.
The Internet is frequently used as the engine of a new revolution that can
eliminate poverty and bring prosperity to producers of crafts and commodities in
economically impoverished areas of the world. "E-commerce" and the "digital divide"
are all inherently geographical ideas, as well as being integral components to many theories of economic development.
The Internet will have a profound effect on the way we work, live and learn.
By enabling instantaneous and seamless communication and commerce around
the globe, from almost any device imaginable, this technology will be one of
the key cultural and economic forces of the early 21st century. (Gates 2000)
The Internet has come to shape some of the ways in which development
is conceptualized. The potentials of the Internet underpin a host of
projects that seek to transform those potentials into actualities. The concepts
and practices of ecommerce, in particular, have lead
some practitioners of development to attempt to replicate the successes of
Western firms such as Amazon.com.
Business eCommerce applications:
Some common applications related to electronic commerce are the following:
- E-mail and messaging
- Content Management Systems
- Electronic Invoicing
- Documents, spreadsheets, database
- Accounting and finance systems
- Orders and shipment information
- Enterprise and client information reporting
- Domestic and international payment systems
- Newsgroup
- On-line Shopping
- Messaging
- Conferencing
- Online Banking
Government regulations:
In the United States, some electronic commerce activities are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These activities include the use of
commercial e-mails, online advertising and consumer privacy. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes national standards for direct marketing over e-mail.
The Federal Trade Commission Act regulates all forms of advertising, including online advertising, and states that advertising must be truthful
and non-deceptive. Using its authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive practices, the FTC has brought
a number of cases to enforce the promises in corporate privacy statements, including promises about the security of consumers’ personal
information. As result, any corporate privacy policy related to e-commerce activity may be subject to enforcement by the FTC.
Forms:
Contemporary electronic commerce involves everything from ordering "digital" content for immediate online consumption, to ordering
conventional goods and services, to "meta" services to facilitate other types of electronic commerce.
On the consumer level, electronic commerce is mostly conducted on the World Wide Web. An individual can go online to purchase anything
from books or groceries, to expensive items like real estate. Another example would be online banking, i.e. online bill payments,
buying stocks, transferring funds from one account to another, and initiating wire payment to another country. All of these activities
can be done with a few strokes of the keyboard.
On the institutional level, big corporations and financial institutions use the internet to exchange financial data to facilitate
domestic and international business. Data integrity and security are very hot and pressing issues for electronic commerce today.
References:
- Chaudhury, Abijit; Jean-Pierre Kuilboer (2002). e-Business and e-Commerce Infrastructure. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-247875-6.
- Frieden, Jonathan D.; Roche, Sean Patrick (2006-12-19), "E-Commerce: Legal Issues of the Online Retailer in Virginia" (PDF), Richmond Journal of
Law & Technology 13 (2)
- Graham, Mark (2008), "Warped Geographies of Development: The Internet and Theories of Economic Development" (PDF), Geography Compass 2 (3)
- Kessler, M. (2003). More shoppers proceed to checkout online. Retrieved January 13, 2004
- Nissanoff, Daniel (2006). FutureShop: How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way We Buy, Sell and Get the Things We Really Want, Hardcover, The Penguin Press, 246 pages. ISBN 1-59420-077-7.
- Seybold, Pat (2001). Customers.com. Crown Business Books (Random House). ISBN 0-609-60772-3.
- Miller, Roger (2002). The Legal and E-Commerce Environment Today, Hardcover, Thomson Learning, 741 pages. ISBN 0-324-06188-9.
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
