Revenue Model for Google, Amazon and Ebay

Google’s yearly income is generated from advertisement fees. Google’s design, Google AdWards is a pay per click advertising program to allow advertiser to present advertisement to people online. Information related to the advertiser has being offered instantaneously to people who are looking for it through Google AdWards. An advertiser has to pay every time his ad receives a click. Google generate most of the revenue from Google AdWards. Besides, Google AdSense is an ad serving program that allow Website owner to enroll in this program to enable text, image and video advertisement in this site. Advertisers are required to pay Google a fee each time user click on one of their ads displayed on Google site. This is known as affiliate fees. Furthermore, Google also offer a research service called Google Answers. When customers ask questions, offer a price for the answer and researcher will answer them. The researcher is not Google’s employee but Google will keep 25% of the payment and the balance will subject to the researchers. Of all the revenue for Google, AdWords generates the most, which is more than 90% of the revenue. Currently, Google is testing a new revenue model that pay site owner based on a Cost-Per-Click model. It is a new way offered to advertiser to earn revenue from their Websites that are compensated based on Cost-Per-Action (CPA) basis.

E-bay earned transaction fees from each successful transaction made by the bidders or seller in an auction. It has built a streamlined and globalized person-to-person trading community on the Internet through World Wide Web. This facilitates easy exploration for buyers and allows the seller to immediately list those items for sale. Sellers and buyers are brought together in a manner where sellers are allowed to list items for sale and buyers can bid on the items interested. In the meanwhile, all eBay users can browse through the listed items in a fully automated way. Sellers are charged with two kinds of charges. First charge is charged on an item that are being listed on eBay which is called as nonrefundable Insertion fee which ranges between 30 cents and $3.30, depending on the seller’s opening bid on the item. . A fee is charged for additional listing options to promote the item, such as highlighted or bold listing. Secondly, a fee is charged at the end of the seller’s auction which ranges between 1.25% and 5% of the final sale price.

Amazon.com is an American electronic commerce company in Seattle, Washington. It is one of the first major companies involved in selling of goods by Internet. It was started as an online bookstore but later was diversified to product lines of DVDs, VCDs, computer software, video games, furniture, food and etc. In 2001, Amazon.com has launched the Honor System that allowed customers to make donations or buy digital content. With that, Amazon has collected 2.9% of the payment plus a flat free of $0.30 USD. For example, after 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indonesia Ocean, Amazon has set up an online donation channel to the American Red Cross, waiving its processing fee. Besides, Amazon has also launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and data transferred. Using Amazon technology, Webstore, allows businesses to create e-commerce websites. Merchants can customize their websites using their own photos and even branding. Sellers have to pay a commission of 7% to Amazon.com, which includes credit card processing fees and fraud protection fee; subscription fee of $59.95 per month for an unlimited numbers of Webstores and listings. Moreover, Amazon has launched Associates affiliate programme which run like this way: associate drive internet traffic to Amazon.com through links that allows user to track sales and other activity. Then, associates can earn up to 10% in referral fees on all qualifying revenue made via their links.

Thing to take note to Prevent E-Auction Fraud when a Consumer Participating in an E-Auction

Auction is market mechanism by which buyers make bids and sellers place offers. The most democratic type of auctions is an electronic auction which means auctions carry on online.

Now, purchaser and marketer alike gain from the great chances that online auctions provide. It call e-auction. Nevertheless, the speedy increment of online commerce presents new chances and new dispute for both traditional retailers.

These are some significant notes that users should take notes when enter into an e-auction process. First of all, there are the User identity verification where eBay uses the service of Equifax to verify user personal identities. Verified eBay user, a voluntary platform, encourages users to supply eBay with datas for online confirmation. By providing their Social Security number, date of birth and driver’s license number, users can qualify for the highest level of confirmation on eBay.

Most beneficial of eBay is a new specialty site for finding the most-unusual items on the eBay site. Users can also vote on and appoint listings that they found.

Some of the tips to avoid fraud:

• check the reputation of the e-auction web sites and their policies to protect their own customers and also customer's personal datas


• know the buyers or sellers- If possible, deal with the buyers/ sellers in person.


• If there is any question on the identity of the buyers/sellers, don't make payment or ship out the goods.


• Get the details of the sellers/buyers before making payment or sending out the goods.


• Always check for the feedback forum to read the comments that left by previous buyers on the seller or particular website.

The Application of Pre-paid Cash Card for Consumers

In Malaysia there are not much of pre-paid cash cards for Malaysian. The pre-paid cash card I can find in Malaysia is the Touch 'n Go card. Touch'n Go card is a prepaid smartcard that uses Mifare contactless technology. Touch‘n Go card is an electronic purse that can be used at all highways in Malaysia, major public transports in Klang Valley, selected parking sites and theme park.

The card looks similar to a credit card. User can continue using the card as long as it is pre-loaded with electronic cash. User can reload the card at toll plazas, train stations, Automated Teller Machines, Cash Deposit Machines, Petrol kiosks and at authorised third party outlets. Reload denomination is ranging from RM20 to RM500. Each time a user uses the Touch ‘n Go card, the electronic card reader will deduct the exact fare from the value stored inside the card.

Application of Touch'n Go card:

• Toll fare: Touch'n Go can be used in entire highways stretches in Malaysia with the familiar TnG sign marked when reach a toll plaza

• Public Transportation fares: Touch'n Go can be use as an integrated ticket in Kuala Lumpur public transport system. There are Rapid KL, KTM Komuter, and KL Monorail.

• Ticketless car parks: Touch'n Go card can also be used in selected car parks such as Sg Wang Plaza, 1 Utama shopping center, Sunway Pyramid shopping center and etc.

After we have the Touch'n Go systems, the system can process up to 800 vehicles per hour in a toll plaza. These can save a lot of energy and save a lot of time. This is very convenient for the consumers which they feel inconvenience to prepare for exact change when they are driving or wait for the teller to give back the small change.

Lastly, the Touch'n Go card brings a lot of benefits to us which makes our life become more convenient.

Corporate Blogging: A New Marketing Communication Tool For Companies

Corporate Blogging
A New Marketing Communication Tool For Companies

A corporate web log is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. Blogging has caused quite a buzz. From political activists to aspiring novelists, industry pros and avid hobbyists, everyone seems to be starting a blog. Recent articles in Business Week and Forbes demonstrate how even the mainstream media is taking notice of their unprecedented growth and increasing effect on our society.

Companies that employ a well thought out blogging strategy encourage the strongest community goodwill, and that goodwill, in turn, promotes significant marketing and sales gains. It is said that success breeds success. This holds very true for successful blogs. There is chain reaction that begins with a real desire on the part of the blogger to provide value and connect with their audience. The blogger shares useful and engaging content —the latest information, help, discussion topics and ideas. The way the audience responds to that content is key. When customers start commenting, posting or tracking back to a blogging community, it can have a viral effect —spreading out across the blogosphere.

Besides that, companies that harness their customers’ knowledge and ideas find better ways to satisfy their needs and wants, thus facilitating goodwill in the community. For example, it is a common practice in blogging to provide a link back to a thought originator, which is valuable because backlinks are a way that search engines distinguish the order of the editorial rankings. Higher search engine rankings translate into significantly higher web site traffic and more sales leads. Thus, successful blogging breeds success in other marketing and sales initiatives.

On the other hand, leaders can communicate directly with customers, suppliers and investors, as well as employees, helping disseminate and explain strategy. Employees and customers can share their ideas freely in an honest voice brings the blogging companies new connections and generate trust which will lead to business opportunities galore. People are far more likely to give great feedback if they know someone specific is listening. The power of these feedback loops can generate big benefits.

A company can use a blog to learn how to improve or develop new products by communicating more effectively with their customers through the use of corporate blogs. Any company should encourage customer ideas, reward them and learn from their customer’s example. If they do, they will build more successful products which also have ready customers who want to adopt new ideas and products because they have participated in the process of product development. Such a strategy will also have additional Internet marketing benefits in the form of more backlinks and higher search engine rankings, as well as direct traffic from links on many different websites.

Finally, corporate blogging really give many advantages to a company and it is a new marketing communication tool. So, corporate blogging should be implemented in all companies.

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

E-Government in Malaysia
Implementation and Citizen’s Adoption Strategies

In 1997, the Malaysian Government launched the Electronic Government initiative, generally known as e-Government, to reinvent itself to lead the country into the Information Age. As far as Malaysia is concerned, the implementation of e-government was initiated with the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1996.

The implementation of e-Government in Malaysia heralds the beginning of a journey of reinventing the government by transforming the way it operates, modernising and enhancing its service delivery. E-Government seeks to enhance the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with the public and businesses at large. Simultaneously, it will improve information flow and processes within the government, improve the speed and quality of policy development, and improve coordination and enforcement. This would enable the government to be more responsive to the needs of its citizens. (The Multimedia Super Corridor).

E-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in MSC. The objectives of these flagship applications are to jump start and accelerate the growth of MSC, to enhance national competitiveness; to creation of high value jobs and export growth, to help reduce digital divide, and to make MSC a regional hub and test bed. Under the e-government flagship, seven main projects were identified to be the core of the e-government applications. The e-Government projects are Electronic Procurement (eP), Project Monitoring System (PMS), Electronic Services Delivery (eServices), Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS), Generic Office Environment (GOE), E-Syariah and Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX).

Nowadays, not many Malaysian use the E-government service. This is because many of them do not trust the services that are provided by the government. There are many problems occur when they use the e-government. They can’t get their licenses in a short period and others. Besides that, many of the citizens do not how to use the e-government, especially those whose ages are above 50.

Malaysia should organize campaigns and road shows to encourage all the citizens to use e-government. They should show all the advantages that the citizens can get by using e-government. On the other hand, government should overcome the problems that are occurred while using e-government. The system should be improved. So the citizens would not face difficulties using it.

Review A Local E-Commerce Site : JustSimpleDesign.com

Review A Local E-Commerce Site

JustSimpleDesign.com

JustSimpleDesign.com supplies web-sites to personal, companies, from small to medium sized enterprise. It is solid knowledge base, together with the proven ability to explain the Internet in simple terms has already led to appearances on internet.

At the main page, like the normal web designer did. 3 frames which 1 is at the top, 2 at the bottom but the right portion is wider than the left. As usual, on top of the frame put the company name together with its hyperlink which bring the users directly to the destination they wanted to surf. Left frame of the web page gives the company featured solutions, so that the client can be easily aware of what features are the company provides. Client login at the main page to convenient the client so login right away when they enter main page. Confidence from clients is the best return, that is why the featured client are in the main page as well. The purpose mostly is for the new comers to experience how is the company outcome looks like. The client might know the style of the company whenever they remember one of the featured client's portfolio. Sometimes it does gives good impression to the client from previous client web page. For example, whenever a new client ever checks out of mynews.com web page, the new client is indirectly introduced to JustSimpleDesign.com. Lastly, Live Support is provided in the web page on-line. Status has been giving out too to let the client know whether the support is still in the status of online. So that billing, sales and technical support can

The bottom right portion which is the main body posted up important message that most of the client will aware of. That is why the company brief introduction is posted up at that spot just to attract the client to read. Besides, Domain Name quick search is provided for those client who is interested to host their own domain and the following is the portion where they sells their features. Training or workshop that they conduct or host also will be posted at their webpage. Although the webpage looks simple but it sends a lot of informations to the clients.

Quicklinks also can be seen on top of the main page. Most of the links can be found in the main page features too. Among the all the quicklinks, clients and solutions can be considered the most important because the solutions are the products that the company going to sell to the customer and the clients link is about the supports that the clients to the company. Project portfolio is added to increase the confidence of the client.

This e-commerce webpage does not enquiry the clients to make payment over the web. The company requires the clients to provide details and personal particulars so that the company will contact the client for further information. The best part of this is the company does not need to bare more cost. Besides direct communication with the clients will get more familiar with the clients so that will cut down the gap in between plus the company will also get the requirement onto clients solutions more clearly.

Last but not least, the web page also provide FAQ (Frequently Ask Question) to answer guests' doubts. FAQ is the most common features that most of the company will provide.

Mobile Payment Systems in Malaysia: Its Potentials and Consumers’ Adoption Strategies

Mobile Payment Systems
Its Potentials and Consumers' Adoption Strategies

Mobile payments are payments made using mobile handsets and other devices, either to directly purchase or to authorize payment for goods and services. Such devices are playing an increasing and evolving role in the wider development of electronic payment systems around Asia Pacific.

The uses of mobile payment system are money transfers person-to-person (C2C) and to businesses (C2B), buying ring tones, concert tickets, taxi and parking payments, credit card/checking transfers, delivery/mobile business payments, music (content), gift cards.

Easy payment translates to larger sales and a greater instance of impulse purchasing. We all know that if you make the purchasing process easy and remove any thought of how much you are spending then the tendency is to spend more. Credit cards have been a boon to impulse spending. This has been a real plus for merchants as it has enabled the public to have a quick, easy, efficient and cashless way to make purchases. The move from cashless to cardless is the next logical step in payment evolution. The rise of the cell phone as a key piece of personal technology will continue to grow; its use as a payment device seems an inescapable and inevitable extension to its utility.

The payment industry and mobile phone manufacturers are looking to use near field communication (NFC) as the base technology. NFC technology is an extension of RFID that combines a smart card interface and reader into a single device. NFC in mobile phones is likely next in line in the evolution for mainstream payment systems. Long term, all phones will have a NFC chip built into the phone.

Maxis Communications Berhad is currently trialling a mobile phone multi-payment service incorporating credit card and prepaid transit payments with Maybank, Visa International and Touch ‘n Go. Maxis "Touch to Pay" employs Near Field Communications (“NFC”) technology which leverages on a short-range wireless connectivity standard embedded in mobile phones.

Maxis also plans to offer a special user interface that offers an array of functionalities which will allow customers payment details, credit balance and recent transactions on the mobile phone screen at any point in time. Upon successful completion of the ‘touch to pay’ trial and commercial roll out next year, Maxis also plans to expand the NFC application in the area of “service discovery”, which will enable mobile phones to read “smart posters” implanted with Radio Frequency Identification (“RFID”) Tag. This will open up a new information channel for customers to gain access to bus routes and timetables, special offers and coupons at selected retail outlets.

Electronic Currency : PayLoadz

PayLoadz gives opportunity for users to sell and buy their products on the internet effectively. The system works in conjunction with PayPal or Google Checkout to provide the users to sell a digital product the platform to do so. It is especially useful to merchants wanting to sell their goods to customers right from their own web site or in online auctions. Any electronic product that can be downloaded can be marketed at PayLoadz. This includes video, audio, eBooks and software. No special programming or server requirements needed - just cut and paste the HTML code that is provided.

The way PayLoadz works is like this. When the buyer click on the product they like on the internet. After that a window will prompt out asking for the user's PayPal or Google Checkout Username and Password. If they do not have an account, they will be given the opportunity to create one or to check out without creating an account using a credit card or bank account as their funding source.After the payment process successfully made, the PayPal or Google Checkout server communicates with the PayLoadz server and provides the transaction details to the system. After that, an email which contains custom “thank you” text that the users specify during the product creation process, and a link for users to download their product. Or they are redirected to the download page, immediately after payment, that provides them instant access to the purchase. After the whole process is done, the users will receive a notification of payment through the mail.

By using PayLoadz, users can enjoy:

• Access to international markets
• the differences between physical trades and trading via internet is, the products can be exhibited to the world at one time. It means that the products can be introduced through the internet whenever the internet users drop by or found the item that the seller is posted and at the same time, there can be a lot of users around the world are viewing the items posted.
  
• Quick and easy implementation
• by using the Electronic Currency, the trades can be easily done. In this case, if using PayLoadz is used. Just need to register the PayLoadz account and PayPal or Google Checkout to guarantee the transactions.
  

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit Card Debts

Causes and Prevention

What is credit card? A credit card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. A credit card allows consumers to purchase products or services without cash and to pay for them at a later date. To qualify for this type of credit, the consumer must open an account with a bank or company, which sponsors a card.

If you have credit cards, but have not yet let your spending get out of hand, then now is the time to take stock of your position and make some decisions about your financial future. Ask yourself what do you want those credit cards for? Do you just want them so that you have a source of payment in emergencies, to shop occasionally online, or when you travel abroad? Or do you plan on going on a shopping spree and spending the rest of the year struggling to clear the balance? Most people do not intend to ever use up their credit limits and max out their credit cards, but it is surprisingly easy to do, and can be very difficult to undo.

Most of the credit card users only pay the interest and the minimum amount of principal when the debt is due, thus never fully repaying the entire sum. This is one of the major factor credit card debts cause.

Some of the credit card users don't know where they spend or spending without plan or budget. This is because they have credit cards with them so they can spend easily without thinking. When they come to pay the credit card debts, they will face difficulty to pay back and feel regret because they spend so much in the begining.

Prevention

Credit card users must manage their finance well. Try to set a budget for the monthly spending on credit card. Credit card users must know the interest rate charge by the credit card company. Don't always pay for the minimum payment only, try to pay all the balance in the credit card statements.

Next, credit card users have to pay the balance on time every month to avoid the credit card company charge high interest on the balance. Credit card users also must use the credit card like cash, not like a credit card. Always use credit card according to the budget that have set every month.

All of this will help credit card users to prevent from the credit card debts increase and get charge high interest on the balance.

Phishing: Examples and Its Prevention Methods

Phishing

Examples and Its Prevention Methods

Phishing is a scam in which the attacker sends an email purporting to be from a valid financial or eCommerce provider. Identity thieves and other criminals often use "phishing" scams, one of the fastest growing internet crimes, to steal personal information from a vast number of people. Phishing attacks use 'spoofed' e-mails and fraudulent websites designed to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers.

The following are examples of what a phishing scam e-mail message might look like:

How to Prevent ?
There are some ways to help us to prevent phishing scam. Firstly, never click on the links in email messages. It can be extremely difficult to identify which are legitimate and which are spoofed. Go directly to the website of your financial institution and log in as usual. If there is a need to update some information, you will be informed when you log in.

Secondly, review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorized charges. If our credit cards are being used by other people, we will see the amount in the bank statement.

Thirdly, we should always be skeptical. Most legitimate companies do not send requests to update our information. Those that make these requests are finding that most people are suspicious and ignore the request.

Fourthly, use anti-virus software and a firewall, and keep them up to date. Besides that, don’t email personal or financial information. This is because; other people can hack our email and take information from there.

Finally, in order to avoid this e-mail to ever land in your inbox you need to use a phishing filter. One of the most common ones at the moment is the Bayesian Filter that allows you to blacklist or white list certain individuals. It also easily integrates to popular email clients such as MS outlook.

How to Safeguard Our Personal and Financial Data?

How to Safeguard Our Personal and Financial Data?

Nowadays, there are many ways that other people can obtain our personal information and financial data. For example, some syndicates steal wallets that contain our identification and steal our mail, including our bank and credit card statements. From that, they can know our personal and financial data. Then they will create a new credit card or identification card by using our data.

There are several ways that we can safeguard our personal and financial data. Firstly, we should memorize our passwords. Don’t record our password on papers and carry it in the wallets. We also should not use our date of birth as our password. This is because other people can know our password for our atm card if we use our date of birth as password.

Secondly, we should never give our personal or financial information over the phone or Internet unless we initiated the contact. We also should not download files that were sent to us by strangers or click on hyperlinks from people whom we don’t know. It is dangerous to do that because other people have the chance to hack into our computer after we download some files. Besides that, we should use a firewall program on our computer, especially if we leave our computers connected to the Internet 24 hours a day.

Thirdly, we should report lost or stolen credit cards immediately. This step is to prevent our cards being used by other people. Besides that, we should always check our monthly credit card and bank statements for unusual activity. Once we find out something unusual then we need report to the bank.

Finally, we need to protect our personal information. We only share credit card or other personal information when we are buying from a company that we know and trust. We need to know who we are dealing with. We should not do business with any company that won’t provide its name, street address and telephone number.

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia.

VeriSign is one of the world’s leading providers of managed strong authentication services. These services enable enterprises to authenticate users, authorize their online activities and provide trust to conduct secure Web-based and other digital transactions. To fulfill different needs of enterprises, customers and business partners, VeriSign Managed Strong Authentication Services comes out with multiple choices of authentication, such as:

• One Time Password (OTP)
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
• Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Technology-Based Authentication

or

Normally, VeriSign logo or signature can be easily seen in a log in page especially when the user login and password is needed to deal with sensitive matters. VeriSign uses digital certificates can also add value when Tivoli Access Manager encrypts customer information and transactional data and by enabling digital signatures to further secure monetary exchanges. Because the combined solution provides a multitiered program of transaction security—from authentication to access and encryption to digital signatures—end users are more likely to do business via online.


In Malaysia, E-Commerce has become more common these days in the business industries. Data confidentiality and integrity are one of the main concerns for an organization to give assurance and confidence to the end users. To ensure data confidentiality and integrity, all information transmitted over the Internet is encrypted using the 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol from VeriSign Certificate Authority. SSL is a secure way of transferring information between two computers on the Internet using encryption. Strong end to end encryption is also adopted within the bank's computer networks and resources.


The appliance of VeriSign has become broader, the growth of websites which applies this internet security service also become larger. The service is familiar to the end user whenever comes to money matters, they will enquire for the certificate for the assurance. Locally, maybank2u.com and www2.pbebank.com are among the bank websites that apply the service because of its e-banking which deals millions of transactions daily.

Below is the image of VeriSign's certification for Public Bank:

{click on the image for a better view}

The Threat of Online Security: How Safe is our Data?

As Internet users display more of their personal information on social networking Web sites, and office workers upload more sensitive data to online software programs, computer hackers are employing increasingly sophisticated methods to pry that information loose. In many cases, they're devising small attacks that can fly under the radar of traditional security software, while exploiting the trust users place in popular business and consumer Web sites.

Some people or companies with malicious intentions write programs like computer viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware. These programs are all characterised as being unwanted software that install themselves on your computer through deception. Trojan horses are simply programs that conceal their true purpose or include a hidden functionality that a user would not want. Worms are characterised by having the ability to replicate themselves and viruses are similar except that they achieve this by adding their code onto third party software. Once a virus or worm has infected a computer, it would typically infect other programs (in the case of viruses) and other computers.

Spyware is software that runs on a computer without the explicit permission of its user. It often gathers private information from a users computer and sends this data over the Internet back to the software manufacturer. Adware is software that runs on a computer without the owner's consent, much like spyware. However, instead of taking information, it typically runs in the background and displays random or targeted pop-up advertisements. In many cases, this slows the computer down and may also cause software conflicts.

The Online Danger

Many simply just do NOT understand the risks online. Over the last 24 months tens of thousands of computers around the world have been compromised and turned into a "zombie" computer that can be controlled by a remote user - and the PC owner does NOT even suspect a thing!

When a "remote user" (a criminal) wishes to launch an attack on a website, spread a new piece of spyware that steals personal data, send out spam e-mail and etc. They will use thousands of these "zombie" PC's as a group of computers, sometimes referred to as a "botnet", to achieve their task.

Things have got so organised now that high tech criminal gangs will approach the "owner" of these botnet's and pay them a fee to "rent" their services for a particular task. The biggest botnets can have tens of thousands of hijacked computers in them. Research suggests they can be hired from as little as 4 cents per machine!

The Solution?

I can not emphasise enough the importance of securing your computer! Would you leave your house and not secure it? No of course not yet the only reason these criminals can grab hold of your data in most cases is poor security on your part.

Always use Internet Explorer 7 or FireFox 2.0. Use anti-spyware like SpySweeper or Spyware Doctor (AVOID the free software as the stakes are now to high to rely on them, except Microsoft Windows Defender as they DO have the resources behind this product.)Use AntiVirus programs like McAffee AntiVirus. On at least a weekly basis update anti-virus and spyware products. Switch on the Windows firewall. Make sure updates to your operating system are installed. Make sure you are running XP Service Pack 2. Consider an all-in-one package like OneCare or McAfee Internet Security Suite. Take time to educate yourself and family about the risks. Always use passwords that contain numbers & letters and make them at least 8 to 12 characters long. Do NOT use familiar words such as a name in the password as these can easily be cracked. Monitor your computer and stay alert to threats. Remember the days of installing free software to protect you are long gone.

An Example of an E-Commerce Failure and its Causes

http://www.furnituresite.com/

Furnituresite.com was launched in 1998 by Steve Rothschild. A year after the site was launched; the company replaced Rothschild with Andrew Brooks as CEO and soon after changed its name to Furniture.com. The company had lost $46.5 million in the year it filled the IPO. Although Furniture.com had many customers, it still struggled to make a decent profit. It became apparent that the company was in trouble when it lay off 30 of its 230 employees in April 2000.

There were some reasons that caused furniture.com to failure in the market. Firstly, furniture needs high shipping cost because furniture is usually large and heavy. Since Furniture.com was an online store, shipping was very important because it was part of every sale. Most of the items Furniture.com sold were too heavy “to send by the U.S. postal service, Federal Express, or United Postal Service,” so it were forced to use more expensive specialty delivery services. There were some stories of shipping costing more than the purchase price, which is very bad for business. Furniture.com was not able to find a remedy to the high shipping costs and suffered greatly because of it.

Secondly, Furniture.com also struggled with its information systems. It struggled to “track, ship, and charge” properly on the goods it sold. Many shipments were shipped without charging the proper price for them, to the wrong place, or not sent at all. It was most common for shipments to be delivered late; this was a big problem for customers with deadlines, such as holidays and other special occasions. In the last few months of the company’s existence, the Better Business Bureau received over 70 complaints about Furniture.com, mostly over shipping errors.

Finally, the product, furniture, was not the ideal type of product for the Internet. Many consumers just weren’t ready to buy furniture over the Web. Furniture is a fairly expensive purchase, and most customers want to make sure they make the right decision. Consumers, put a big emphasis on the comfort of furniture. A major downside to shopping on Furniture.com was that the consumer lacked the ability to touch and feel cushions and fabrics first hand. People were not comfortable choosing furniture solely based on pictures, and those who did were forced to gamble on what the actual product would be like.

An Example of an E-Commerce Success and its Causes

http://www.dell.com/

Dell.com was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, who is the longest-tenured executive to lead a company in the computer systems industry (Dell.com). One thing that separates Dell.com from other computer businesses is that it only offers its products online. The utilization of e-commerce is what has made Dell.com so successful. The company is based on a simple concept: selling computer systems directly to customers. This concept allows the people at Dell.com to understand the needs of its customers and build a computer that is most effective for its customers in the most efficient way possible. Its customers do not have to choose the one particular computer setup that is sold in a store; instead they are able to buy a computer that is best suited for them.

Dell.com sells more computer systems throughout the world than any other computer company. Over the last four quarters, Dell.com has totaled “$57.9 billion in revenues". Dell.com also introduces the latest relevant technology much more quickly than companies with slow-moving, indirect distribution channels, turning over inventory in just five days on average”. For over twenty years, Dell.com has experienced great success inB2C e-commerce.

Dell.com has been a dominate force in computers for over twenty years. It is one of the oldest surviving B2C e-commerce companies. The company’s success is due in large part to the way that it reinvented the computer making process. Its automated e-commerce network has streamlined the production of computers. Dell.com’s system revolutionized computer production in much the same way that Ford’s system revolutionized automobile production. The company’s radio powered ID chips have made the company successful by simplifying everyday processes.

Discuss how E-Commerce can reduce cycle time, improve employees’ empowerment and facilitate customer support.

Why E-Commerce?

Reduce Cycle TimeE-Commerce shortens the time taken for a business to complete. E-Commerce can reduce the cycle time by eliminating steps in the business process. Middlemen or the intermediaries are eliminated and producers are able to approach customers directly. Online stores operates 24 hours By reducing the cycle time, the company can decrease the cost incurred, increase revenue and gain competitive advantages over the others.

Improve Employees’ EmpowermentE-Commerce allows the decentralization of decision making and authority via collaborative commerce. E-Commerce offer desktop enhancement for data access and retrieval, superior reference tools and better decision support for the management. With central database, employees from different geographical location are able to access to the link required to carry out the business and perform business transaction instantly. It granted power to the employees in dealing with the process of capturing, researching and leveraging business information. Empowered employees will definitely make customer satisfied and eventually increase operation efficiency.

Facilitate Customer Support E-Commerce facilitates customer support by providing a wide range of technological solutions and communication opportunity. Maintaining electronic bulletin will enable customers to report fault immediately. E-Commerce creates an easier way for customer to purchases goods and services in a more interactive way. On line site are more attractive compared to the traditional store. Customers have direct access to product information, new product updates, and promotions by visiting online stores.

Jordan Kuah First Blog

My name is Kuah Chia Nien, can call me Jordan as well. I am 21 years old and now staying at Bandar Damai Perdana, Cheras. I am studying at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Bandar Sungai Long, which the course I am taking is Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) Entrepreneurship in year 3 semester 1. I was born on the land below the wind where the place is Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

I can’t live without music, especially the pop songs. Everyday at least few hours I have on my music player or even driving also can’t be silent in my car. Lately I have listened English songs more than Chinese songs. Almost outdated with what the famous Chinese songs are playing at the radio. Besides, soccer is also one of the hobbies in my life. I will date with few of my soccer team players or some of my buddies that always play together at indoor futsal once a week. Swimming can maintain our body fit so I will swim at least once per week at my friend’s condo.

The top 5 web sites I always visit are:

http://www.friendster.com/

http://www.hotmail.com/

http://www.soccernet.com/

http://www.livescore.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

I always visit http://www.friendster.com/ for meeting my net's friends and also my university's friends. I also make friend with a lot of foreigners' friends. Friendster also can help me to keep in touch with my old friends and also help me to contact back my friends that long time didn't meet which studied together in primary and secondary schools. Other than that, I always use http://www.hotmail.com/ to access e-mail inbox. Hotmail is a web site which provides e-mail service to internet users. I start using it since I was 12 years old. It is very user friendly. Other that, I always check for soccer news from http://www.soccernet.com/. I can get the latest news about my favourite clubs from that web site. This web site is useful because the news is up-to-date and can't get it from local news paper. I'm also always check for football latest results from http://www.livescore.com/ because it provides the on the spot results and complete details for the particular matches. This web site consist almost whole world of football's results. Lastly, one of the top web site I always visit are http://www.youtube.com/. This web site has a lot of videos are very interesting and useful.

That's little about myself. This is my first time I post blog. I hope all of you enjoy read it.

Tio Yee Lin I Am

My name is Tio Yee Lin. I am currently pursuing BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (HONS) ENTREPRENEURSHIP in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman located in Bandar Sungai Long, Kajang.

I usually log on www.google.com and www.yahoo.com . Both serve as competent search engine and enable the users to search for information, providing free e-mails services and etc. I usually read and send e-mails via these two sites. I can access to various information from the web sites from all around the world with just a click on the mouse. These two are the necessary websites that I would visit for school work as well as finding extra information.

Other than that, wikipedia.org is another pathway to obtain information from various fields. It is an “E-Encyclopedia” contributed and written by volunteers from all over the world. It shows many relevant pictures and diagrams that made me understand better.

www.thestar.com.my is a local newspaper provider. It enables to read instant and latest news. The most importantly, by reading newspaper online, we can reduce the usage of paper and it is environmental friendly!

dictionary.cambridge.org. The online dictionary is convenient, easy to access and the best of all, it is free of charge. It helps a lot when I come a cross words that I do not understand .The content of the dictionary is complete and the explanation is comprehensive .There are barely any words that could not be found here.

The site I visited the most is www.friendster.com. It is a site that enables the user to discover new friends via Internet social network and maintain profiles, music, photos and etc. I am able to communicate and keep in touch with friends which are located at different place.

My TOP FIVE INTERNET ACTIVITIES are reading e-newspapers, sending and receiving e-mails, browse and search for information, chat instantly with friends and family members.

I am Ng Yeik Feiy

My name is Ng Yeik Feiy. Now I am taking BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (HONS) ENTREPRENEURSHIP in University Tunku Abdul Rahman. I am 23 years old and my hometown is Ipoh, Perak.

My hobbies are playing badminton and reading. Me and my friends play badminton once a week. We book a badminton court in Balakong every Thursday. We can relax ourselves when playing badminton. This can help us to pay more attention in the lecture and tutorial classes. Besides that, I also read books during my free time. I like horror and thriller novels.

The five websites that I visited the most are www.yahoo.com, www.google.com, www.sinchew.com.my, www.nanyang.com.my and www.tribalwars.net . I use Yahoo and Google websites to search information. Sometimes, I need to use the search engine to search some information for my assignments. On the other hands, I read the latest news from Sinchew and Nanyang websites. These two websites provide me the latest news in Malaysia and the other countries. The last website is for me to play online game. It is a strategy game and is good for teenagers.