E-Commerce

E-learning

2009-07-10T00:03:00.000+08:00

In traditional courses that requires the students and lecturers to meet face-to-face, while E-learning is using electronic applications and processes to learn. E-learning applications and processes include web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration.

E-learning was begun in the late 1980's in Malaysia. In most Universities in Malaysia, e-learning is used to define a specific mode to attend a course or program of study where the students rarely attend face-to-face for on-campus access to educational facilities. Nowadays, many Malaysian Universities offer e-learning course such as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), University of Malaya (UM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and others.

Pros:

Reduce costs and time
With a laptop and internet connection, student can actually learn and study anytime anywhere. Students can learn from anywhere without travelling to the universities as they can conduct the lesson from their home. With E-learning, we can afford getting higher education degrees at respectable universities and colleges by saving extra expenses for travelling, and accommodation.

Effective Distribution of Information

In most modern universities, a ‘paperless’ environment is not just a myth. It is already being practiced on daily basis. It is much better when the lecturer can upload the following day’s lecture notes in the course web page. Students can then access these materials, print them out, and be prepared for tomorrow’s lecture.

Time flexibility
Another advantage of e-learning is its time flexibility. Students can study anywhere they have access to a computer and Internet connection. One can get online resources, communicate with his tutor or class mates, send his query and write term paper at any time he can get access to the Internet. Students' interactions have become much easier than face-to-face communication.

Wider learning option
E-learning provides a wider learning option which is not restricted to the geographic location. Student can access to the other academic resources uploaded by others overseas universities. This might help student to expand their learning environment. Thus, more information can be exchanged between local knowledge and foreign knowledge.

Cons:

Reduce social and cultural interaction
The impersonality of e-learning will let the students feel they are being isolated because lack of face to face communication. Instruction will not always help the students to solve the problem they face during the studies. This will cause to some misunderstanding and conflict may arise. This may lose the students directions and get confused on the course of activities.

Bandwidth and connectivity problem
Computer and Internet connection play an important role in this E-learning. Thus, students may get frustrated or bored of the low bandwidth and connectivity limitation while downloading materials online. Sometimes the Internet connection may be interrupted and will cause to ineffectiveness of getting the information from the portal.

Lack of Motivation and Effort among Students
One of the biggest arguments about e-learning is that it makes students lazy and ineffective, due to being spoon fed by the educational institutions. With e-learning, most educational task is done either by the tutor or some sophisticated software, leaving students with the simple task of just downloading notes and reading them. This will finally create dependent and lazy students.

In conclusion, the E-learning is depends on personal characteristic. Students will prefer studies through E-learning if they prefer independence and more flexibility. Student will more likely to stick with the traditional way if they like to travel to the campus for classes while having more friends.

References Link:

http://www.nortel-certification.com/?p=386
http://www.articlealley.com/article_78603_45.html
http://distancelearn.about.com/od/distancelearning101/p/e-learning.htm

E-Government in Malaysia

2009-07-09T11:50:00.022+08:00

E-government is defined as a way for governments to use the most innovative ICT, particularly Web-based Internet applications, in order to provide citizens and business with more convenient access to government information and services.

IMPLEMENTATION STATUS OF E-GOVERNMENT PROJECTS IN MALAYSIA

The implementation of e-government was initiated with the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1996. E-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in MSC. Under the e-government flagship, seven main projects were identified to be the core of the e-government applications which are as follows:

1) Electronic Procurement (eP) Project
This project was started in 1999 and also known as ePerolehan. It streamlines government procurement activities and improves the quality of service by converting traditional procurement processes to electronic procurement on the Internet.

2) Project Monitoring System (PMS II)
This system is to monitor project implementation throughout various government agencies and statutory bodies which is led by the Implementation and Co-ordination Unit (ICU). The first phase of implementation was in 1998, followed by the second phase in 2002.

3) Electronic Services Directory (eServices)
This is a pilot project that allows citizens of Malaysia to engage in transactions with government and utilities payments such as telephone and electricity bill, police summons, Road and Transport Department (RTD) services via multi channel service delivery such as the internet, interactive voice response (IVR) and 66 kiosk machines.

4) Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
The HRMIS project is anchored by the Public Service Department (PSD) to perform human resource management functions effectively and efficiently in an integrated environment.

5) Generic Office Environment (GOE)
The aim is to introduce a fully Integrated, distributed and scalable office environment that leverages use of multimedia information technology. This will enable efficient communication, allowing collaboration across all workers, and ensuring right information reaching the right people in a timely manner.

6) Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
The ELX project initially started in November 2000 and the main objective is to improve the mobilization of human resources and optimise work force utilisation through systematic matching of job seekers to job vacancies.

7) E-Syariah
Its aim is to improve the quality of service in Syariah courts. The Islamic Affairs Department's effectiveness is enhanced through better monitoring and co-ordination of its agencies and thus improves the management of its 102 Syariah courts.

Beside that, several government agencies have taken initiatives to introduced online services for the public projects. Among the most notable accomplishments of the government was the launch of the myGovernment Portal in February 2005, with all core portal modules completed and “live” in May 2005. It is the single gateway to information and services provided by Malaysian Government agencies on the Internet. To date, myGovernment links 900 websites across federal, state and local authorities and the Malaysian Civil Service Link.

Another e-government application launched by the Internal Revenue Department (IRD) is online tax which is known as e-filing. Since 2005, individuals were able to file their taxes online to IRD using MyKey. MyKey is a digital signature embedded into an individual's MyKad. It identifies and authenticates MyKad holders over the Internet, providing the capability to sign digitally a document or transaction.

My EG portal which is one of the eServices allows individuals to renew road tax and driving license online. Besides, KWSP “i-Account” is now available for individuals to check their account balance or print account statement online.

Citizen’s adoption strategies
There is low PC ownership and low ICT literacy among consumers in rural area, thus they may not be able to adopt e-government services. Therefore, government should provide more kiosks in rural area in order to encourage them to use e-government services.

Besides, some of the websites are not easy for novices to navigate. Consumers may not be able to perform the transactions which they want to do. Therefore, government should provide guidelines and educate consumers by organizing more conference to the public.

Next, consumers are unlikely to use e-government services without a guarantee of privacy and security because consumers are afraid that their personal data may be stolen. Consumers may only use e-government services when they could at least be reassured of system integrity by transparency and PIN-enabled security. Thus, government should ensure secure use of the system and network by improving the security system.

Referred Links:
http://www1.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm
http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/index.php?env=-innews/detail:m1173-1-1-8-s-0#egovernment
http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf

A review on a Legal Blog Post: Illegal Download

2009-07-08T15:23:00.000+08:00

A moment ago I have just read a blog post which about UK's new law targeting on people who illegally download films and music. These people will be cut off from the internet under the new legislative proposals. I consider this information is worth to be share as the consequences of illegal downloading have become a huge disaster.

How serious is it? Look at the following court case:

Not long ago, in 19 June 2009, A US court had just laid down a $1.9 million fine against a Minnesota woman, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, who illegally downloaded 24 songs from the internet; or $80,000 per song according to CNN report.

If you think that this scenario will not happen in Malaysia, then you are WRONG!

In accordance to a news reported in TheStar Online, if you download material illegally from the Internet, be prepared to face a minimum fine of RM250,000. This is the warning from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry to Malaysians who continue to illegally download songs, videos and the like.

Although this penalty was legislated more than 10 years ago under the Copyright Act 1987, it has yet to be fully enforced. This was because the Government was still focusing on “physical enforcement”, encompassing continuous efforts to weed out pirated DVDs, VCDs and CDs sold on the streets and their operators. However, the Government will very soon make Internet download offenders as its priority and cracking down these offenders.

Therefore, if you don't want to end up in court over copyright infringement, keep these good habits to avoid illegal downloading and file sharing:

Read user agreements carefully.
Ensure that your legal P2P software is not set to share the files you have on your computer.
Check the Web sites of the musicians, record companies, or movie studios to see if they allow distribution of their materials on the Internet.
When purchasing music, movies, games, software, or other materials, read the license carefully to learn if you have permission to convert materials to other formats for personal use.
Don't share or distribute materials unless you have permission.

What is your point of view in this? Will this change your attitude towards illegal downloading? Let us know by submitting your comments.

Referred Links:
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2008/02/uk-to-get-tough-with-illegal-downloader.html
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3353387.ece
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/18/minnesota.music.download.fine/
http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/Features/Story/A1Story20090619-149607.html
http://www.it.northwestern.edu/security/illegaldownloading/index.html

Review of Malaysia Transactional E-Commerce Website: Lelong Malysia

2009-07-07T00:09:00.010+08:00

Lelong Malaysia is a website that provides easy Malaysian online Internet auction and trading for computers, cars, houses, electronics, sports, antique, software and handphone. The website also provides online auction payment and courier services and other auction services.

Several features of this site that have contributed to its success in becoming the Malaysia largest online auction and trading portal:

Type of Products Available
Lelong allows the users to have online internet auction and trading for many types of products or services like electronic products, books, home appliances and so on- even the houses or cars. All 30 categories that exist in the website and among them are book & comics, cars & transportation, learning &education, music & song, travel & tours and other else. Normally, there have a lot of products in each category which we can get by direct dealing, bidding and getting information about the sales.

Site Design and Layout
This website is managed to show all the auction products by categories. Thus, members or customers can access and retrieve to get the target product easily. For auction purpose, this website also show the type of transaction auction whether it was bidding or direct sales.

Intelligent Search Engine
Just like an eBay, Lelong provide search engine in order to help the users easily find what they are interesting in. By using this tool to search for items, users also can buy things that they need without incurring and extra cost such as petrol and parking fee. In addition, it also saves time.

Language Translation
Lelong has three different language versions- English, Chinese and Malay. It makes Lelong stands out among the competitors in Malaysian market.

Communication Platform
The Lelong Forum allows members to interact with each other and ask questions. Other members could provide answers and recommendations about issues related to Lelong and transportation of bought materials which have problems with the courier service.

Payment Options
Lelong offers several ways for buyer to make payment to seller. Firstly, buyer can pay directly to the seller via bank transfer or pick up from seller's shop. Secondly, buyer can pay through Safetrade. It works in a simple idea as buyer start a Safetrade and pay to Lelong, Lelong instruct the seller to ship the goods, once the buyer received the item, money will be release to the seller.

Lelong has acted as a guide for more and more small and medium business "go online" using e-commerce website. As a result of the popularity of Lelong.com.my, it caused the growth of other websites such as Malaysia Auction | Lelong Property (real estate), Cari Rumah Sewa, Malaysia Auction Online and Iklan Malaysia.

Referred Links:
http://www.lelong.com.my/
http://www.brandingyp.com/2009/01/lelong-malaysia-online-shopping-auction.html
http://imdavidlee.com/comparison-between-ebay-vs-lelong/
http://bbs.lelong.com.my/bbs/index.php

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

2009-07-06T08:36:00.007+08:00

Blogging is a social networking tool that is very powerful and it can make a fantastic difference to the business. Nowadays, corporate blogging is widely used and published by an organization to achieve its organizational goals. Boeing, Dell, Facebook, Adobe, Google are the example of the corporate blog. Corporate blog can be divided into internal blog and external blog:

An internal blog is normally accessed through the corporation's Intranet. It helps the employees communicate with each other and share their experiences.

An external blog is a blog that can be view by public. It is useful for organizations to get the direct feedback from the customers and also establish better relationship with customers.

How does the Corporate Blog help the organization?

· A corporate blog can build product awareness
Marketing a new product is always difficult. With so many companies releasing products every day, the product might get lost in the fold. Since corporate blogs are faithfully read on a regular basis, they are a very cost effective way to keep customers aware of your product. Therefore, companies can grab and hold the attention of the customers through their web blogs.

· Getting more understanding to customers
Companies are necessary to get more understanding about their customer needs, and creating products or services that meet their needs. The best way to understand what customers really need is listening to them through the web blog. An appropriately responding will also lead to a more trusting relationship with the customers.

The implementation and its effect of the corporate blog:

B oeing Commercial Airplanes uses the same pattern of corporate blogging strategy. Vice President of Marketing, Randy Baseler, keeps an online journal, Randy’s Journal, which has daily readership in the thousands. His first entry, which is widely cited in the blogsphere, provides Boeing’s point of view on competitor Airbus’s new airplane, the A380. He has been confronted with several challenges during blogging. Right after launching, his blog was severely criticised due to the lack of basic blog features such as permanent links and was closed for a while. In addition to Randy’s Journal, Boeing has 777-200RL Flight Test Journal, a chronicle of the flight-testing written by participating pilots and engineers.

Corporate blogs are giving established companies and obscure brands alike the ability to connect with their audiences on a more personal level, build trust, collect valuable feedback and foster strengthened business relationships. Public Relations blogs allow a corporation to put a human touch in place of the often used “corporate speak.”

Pros:

· The posts and comments are easy to reach and follow by employees due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads.

· Management can receive the important information from employees and customers’ feedback efficiently.

· Besides that, it can be more accessible among the executives since the corporate blogging are an “unparalleled information gathering mechanism”.

· Ideas can be generated within an hour through corporate blogging that cost cheaper than other ways.

Cons:

· Corporate blogging might make it easy for defamation and invasion of privacy or to breach information security and loss of company confidentiality.

· It will create an expectation of updating the blog regularly and the companies might not be able to update their web blog on time.

· A new style of communication will be mastered since corporate blogging become popular in these recent years.

In conclusion, corporate blogging provides a clear mind map or editorial guidelines of overall marketing or communication strategy to its employees and third parties with organization communication plan and media mix. Furthermore, Business blog can interact with a target market on a personal level by building a level of credibility and asking for their feedback on products and services.

References links:
http://www.globalprblogweek.com/archives/how_to_launch_a_corp.php

http://www.buildify.com/are-you-communicating-effectively-through-your-corporate-blog/

http://www.bizreport.com/2008/08/the_pros_and_cons_of_a_corporate_blog.html

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?contentType=Article&Filename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/0010440302.pdf

Amazon launches SMS shopping

2009-07-03T10:52:00.004+08:00

I have read a post regarding e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog which is ‘Amazon launches SMS shopping’

According to the post, the e-commerce king, Amazon.com move a step further in their online retailing with the launching of their text-message shopping (SMS Shopping) on 1st April 2008. This service is to allow shoppers to buy things with text messaging which is called TextBuyIt.

However, the service is only provided in US.

Find, Check Prices, and Buy using text messages

This new service allows shoppers to compare prices and buy things with a few quick taps on their mobile phones.

Step 1 - Send a text to "AMAZON" (262966) with the product name, search term, UPC code or ISBN code
Step 2 - Amazon will return 2 results at a time, if the stock matches the order.
Step 3 - Choose between the two options by texting 1 or 2 or request for more option by texting "M" (More).
Step 4 - You get an automated voice call from Amazon "with the final details of their order and asking them to confirm or cancel the purchase"
Step 5 - If it is your first order through TextBuyIt, you will have to provide an e-mail address and preferred shipping speed

The popularity of mobile phones is one of the reasons that shopping giant Amazon set up its new TextBuyIt scheme where customers can do their Amazon shopping by text. Therefore, the offering is notable because it’s the latest in a wave of new efforts by large retailers and publishers to provide content over the mobile phone, now that networks, browsers and other phone technologies are all being upgraded to make the mobile experience more efficient.

Is the TextBuyIt plan really that practical?

Nowadays, many people are constantly hooked up to the Internet. Many people have laptops and computers in their homes and offices. Besides, even many vacation spots offer Internet access features. People may feel more efficient by using computers as compare to text messages. This is because there is only two results show at a time in the text messages while they can get more results show in the website with pictures by using computers.

However, Amazon is able to observe that one of the other times people are disconnected from the Web which is shopping. TextBuyIt is perfect for people who still shop in stores and who have also actively resisted Internet cell phone technology. If these consumers see a product that feels like an impulse buy, they can check the price against items listed on Amazon. At the very least, these shoppers will query the product on the Internet to find a local seller-that is even if they decide to leave their house. As a result, TextBuyIt service will work best for impulse shopping.

In conclusion, shopping by SMS is a good, cheap functional add-on which may be useful for checking and comparing prices while out shopping and allow busy people to make some quick urgent purchases from the road.

Referred Links:
http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=18296
http://experiencematters.criticalmass.com/2008/04/02/amazon-launches-sms-shopping-extends-brand-utility/
http://digital.venturebeat.com/2008/04/02/amazon-offers-sms-shopping/
http://mashable.com/2008/04/02/amazon-sms-textbuyit/

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia

2009-07-02T11:10:00.001+08:00

Currently, mobile payment is new and rapidly-adopting alternative payment method. Consumer can use a mobile phone to pay the payments instead of paying with cash, check or credit cards. Furthermore, mobile payment is also called as M-payment which is a point-of-sale payment made through a mobile device, such as a cellular telephone, a smartphone, or a personal digital assistant (PDA).

Although it is still at its infancy stage, Malaysia has already embarked on the adoption of mobile payment systems. The mobile payment can be used to purchase any number of digital goods and physical goods. For example digital goods are ringtones, games, wallpaper for mobile phone and the booking cinema ticket and air ticket. Usually purchase digital good are through by SMS based transaction payments or mobile web payment (WAP).

For example, Maxis Communication Berhad, has begun offering rudimentary services based on mobile commerce. Maxis mobile commerce service subscribers may now use the services such as e-mail, mobile information provisioning, mobile ticketing, mobile advertising and mobile music.

Mobile money (MM Wallet) is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed by MM International Sdn Bhd. to address the limitation and bottlenecks created by cash, cheque and credit cards. It allows registered users to make payment at anytime and anywhere by using only a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN via sms.

In November 2001, Malaysians started to enjoy a secure and convenient way to conduct mobile commerce using a GSM cellular phone. TeleMoney, the country's first mobile payment service via multi-channel access for Internet and wireless transactions was launched and is expected to fully operational in the first quarter of 2002.

In July 2008, Malaysian mobile solutions provider Com2U Sdn Bhd has launched moneyMe, Malaysia's first operator-independent mobile remittance service, which allows mobile subscribers of Maxis, Digi and Celcom to securely transfer money within Malaysia and to Indonesia.

In April 2009, the world's first contactless mobile payment service has been launched in Malaysia, according to Malaysian mobile operator Maxis Communications (Maxis), Maxis FastTap is an integrated mobile payment service that uses near field communication (NFC) technology, with partners such as phone company Nokia, financial services companies Visa and Maybank, and Malaysia’s Touch ‘n Go card. Customers are able to purchase goods and services at more than 1,800 Visa payWave merchant locations and more than 3,000 Touch ‘n Go points nationwide.

Potential of mobile payment systems in Malaysia

1) When it comes to online selling, selecting a payment gateway is one of the major obstacles faced by the merchants in Malaysia. Mobile payment system allows merchants to take online order without the need for online shopper to disclose their credit card information and thus encourage more merchants to adopt online selling as an extra sales channel since it provides easy access to customers and marchants.

2) Widely use of mobile phone made mobile payment much easier to be adopted. For example, Celcom subscribers signing up for TeleMoney can use the telco's micro-bill mode of payment which allows them to charge transactions below RM50 (US$13.16) to their phone bill.

3) Customers are able to purchase goods and services at more than 1,800 Visa payWave merchant locations and more than 3,000 Touch ‘n Go points nationwide by using Maxis FastTap. Therefore, customers can perform any transactions conveniently by using mobile payment system.

4) The first phase of the e-pay integration with moneyMe service has been completed enabling over 5,000 e-pay terminals in book stores, photo shops, mini markets, restaurants, pharmacies and so on, with the moneyMe cash-in facility. Therefore, it helps consumers to solve the needed money for payment when they lack of cash and can't even search for an ATM machine.

Consumers' Adoption Strategies
These are the common strategies where most of the companies will provide in order to encourage consumers to use the mobile payment services:

1) Reward the consumers by giving gift at certain level of purchasing or giving redemption of reward.

2) Educate consumers about the mobile payments, in order to enable them to use those functions available such as bill payments, mobile purchase, by using GPRS or WAP to make directly payment.

3) Enhance security features in order to increase the level of confidence and satisfaction of consumers when using mobile payment.

4) Collaborate with more banks and companies to widen the ability to pay via mobile.

Referred Links:
http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_overview.asp
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/communications/0,39044192,39001884,00.htm
http://www.mis-asia.com/magazines/computerworld_malaysia/august-2008/first-operator-independent-mobile-payment-service
http://mis-asia.com/news/articles/worlds-first-contactless-mobile-payment-system-launches-in-malaysia

Credit Card Debts? Get Rid of Me!

2009-07-01T09:40:00.000+08:00

Majority of the people, especially business men, need the services of a credit card. There are plenty of positives about carrying plastic instead of cash. Convenience, frequent flier miles and boosting your credit rating are a few.

However, one major drawback is that many people usually overextend credit card use. Credit cards, if used unwisely, can lead to a mountain of debt. Going into credit card debt is very easy yet sometimes difficult to get out of.

Why people fall into a debt trap?

1. Recession

With our current economy crisis, companies retrench employees to save cost. Hence, there are many who are unemployed individuals around and while looking for a job, their bills, loans and mortgage pile up, leaving them to do nothing but dip into their savings and spend more than they can afford, just to survive.

2. Unnecessary Spending

People spend more when using a credit card versus cash for purchases. When we use retail as therapy, we almost never seem to realize that all the small amounts we spend actually total up to big scary figures. Many of us buy things impulsively only to figure out later that it really wasn't necessary.

3. Use more than one can afford

Well, the first step into debt is to spend money that you don't have. Almost all of us spend some money before we actually pay. Once we may not pay these bills, then the debt increases, surprisingly rapidly.

4. Late payments

Late payments result in fees, fees, and more fees. Plus, every fee is subject to the credit card interest rate. Over-balance fees and late payments fees may eventually cause you into huge debt.

I want to get out from trap!

Prevention is definitely better than cure. If you have credit card debt, financial experts agree that you should get out of it as soon as possible. Here are some steps to help you eliminate debt:

1. Reduce the number of cards

You really don’t need handfuls of credit cards. It is wise to pick credit cards that are most important to you. Each financial institution has its own set of policy, transaction fee structure, processing fee etc. So you should be careful before owning it.

2. Control your finances

A credit card should be a convenient means of spending money that you have readily available. It is convenient because you don’t have to carry cash around. It is not a free pass to spend money that you don’t have or will be borrowing. Keep a budget and know what you have available to cover expenditures.

3. Pay in full at the end of each month

Pay your cards on time. Late payment fees will definitely add up to your debt, so you should be vigilant about this.

4. Use cash rather than credit cards

There is a reason that casinos give you chips to spend instead or requiring cash - people don't attach the same value to noncash substitutes and will spend and bet more freely. It's the same with credit cards, and retailers know it. Thus, if you possess cash it is better to use when possible. I am sure, you will think about your monthly salary, before buying something.

I guess no one would like to feel out of control, whether it’s how much you eat, how much work you have to do, or how much debt you have to pay. If you can get into good credit card habits early on and stick with them, you will avoid having to dig yourself out of credit card debt.

Referred Links:
http://www.cardratings.com/howtoavoidcreditcarddebt.html
http://personal-debt-management.suite101.com/article.cfm/ways_to_avoid_and_tackle_credit_card_debt
http://personal-debt-management.suite101.com/article.cfm/ways_to_avoid_and_tackle_credit_card_debt
http://au.pfinance.yahoo.com/credit-cards/features/credit_card_tips/index.html
http://www.stop-credit-card-debt.com/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCR/is_3_36/ai_95356585/

The application of Pre-paid cash card

2009-06-30T22:24:00.005+08:00

Pre-paid cash card is an electronic card issued by a bank which allows the cost of goods or services that are purchased to be deducted directly from the purchaser's checking account. This removes the need for bank clients to go to the bank to remove cash from their account as they can now just go to an ATM or pay electronically at merchant locations.

The difference between a ‘debit card’ and a ‘credit card’ is that the debit card deducts the balance from a deposit account, like a checking account, where the credit card allows the consumer to spend money on credit to the issuing bank.

The application of Pre-paid cash card are:

Touch n Go in Malaysia:
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. TnG card allows a convenient mode of toll fee payment by contacting the TnG card against the card reader. The correct toll fees will be deducted from the card and this eradicates the hassle of queuing and fumbling of dollar notes and coins for payments.

Touch ‘n Go is a great card to have while you’re on the go for easier, faster and hassle-free payments. Thus it also allows drivers to just drive through toll plazas without having to wind down their windows.

Octopus application in Hong Kong:
As we warch Hong Kong drama, most of the time they mention Octopus card. The octopus is widely used in Hong Kong to pay public transportation fees (except Taxis and some public minibuses), as well as retailers who accept Octopus, such as convenience stores or restaurants as well as retail outlets in Shenzhen and Macao. Each Octopus has a built-in microchip containing an electronic purse and other applications which can accurately record the holders' transaction details.

Users simply hold their Octopus over a reader, and the correct amount will be deducted automatically. There's no longer a need for coins. The system handles over 10 million transactions each day. Most of these transactions are for straightforward payments of the kind that are likely to make every day.

Others pre-paid cash card in other countries:
T ravelex's Corporate Cash Passport Tool is loaded with US dollars and is accepted at ATMs and vendors that accept MasterCard products globally. Corporations can use these cards to set spending limits and budgets for its employees.

This card also eliminates costs associated with currency exchange fees by reducing the amount of money that will need to be exchanged. This card has already sparked interest in big corporations like Virgin Atlantic and British Airways just to name a few.

Conclusion:
The major benefits to this type of card are convenience and security. Along with the convenience of accessing account funds at anytime it also removes the hassles associated with having to write checks as payment like showing ID and associated fees. However, it could be easily stolen.

References:

http://tyo.ca/islambank.community/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1095

http://www.btnonline.com/businesstravelnews/headlines/frontpage_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003986162

http://www.hketo.ca/newsletters/hkn0902/octopus.htm

Who Needs Cash When There's Electronic Currency

2009-06-29T20:56:00.003+08:00

Electronic currency (also called electronic money or digital cash) is a fairly recent invention in the history of money and commerce, and typically means that currency with real value, and which can be exchanged for traditional cash, is instead entirely digital (or virtual).

The concept of e-money is simple: the users can simply transfer payments from their own bank accounts (without the need for another person, “middlemen”) to the account of the merchant, electronically and securely over the Internet. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic currency.

What is so different from traditional cash?

1: This currency (information) shall be stored electronically.
2: It is emitted once money is withdrawn from the account.
3: Electronic currency is of real-value to its issuer as well as other entities using different payment means.

These three aspects most fully explain the economic and legal components of electronic currency.

How good it is?

1: Have lesser transaction cost. When transferring money from one purse to another the charge is of about 1% and the transaction cost does not depend on the amount.
2: Mostly its use is anonymous. Unlike bank accounts, electronic money transactions do not involve any personal contacts with banks and do not involve any filling of documents.
3: Makes transaction procedures easy. There is no need to fill-out forms or make telephone inquiries to the bank. Provides its holder with a possibility to make on-line payments.
4: Promotes Fast Transaction. There is real-time coordination of information and the transaction without the needs for intermediary services.

Who offers this service?

There are so many "electronic payment" services on the Internet today; if you're not taking advantage of them you're missing out on a fast, simple way to move money around. If you're selling products or services online, adding one or more of these payment processes to your site will give your visitors more options and possibly result in more sales for you.

Let's examine some of the Top Players a little more closely:

After as little as two years, FIRSTGATE ClickandBuy™ has already established itself to one of the market-leading solutions in the field of pricing and billing Internet content and e-services. More than 14,000 merchants trust ClickandBuy micropayments system.

Paystone provides an inexpensive online payment method without the risk of chargebacks from fraudulent credit card use. n addition to payments Paystone also provides an email money transfer option. A Paystone account holder can send funds to the email address of anyone in many countries around the world.

PayPal is a safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts or account balances, without sharing financial information. With more than 175 million accounts in 190 markets and 19 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce.

In overall, electronic currency is yet not so perfect. Its issuer gives no guarantee of the virtual money paying capacity. Therefore, I personally recommend not to save electronic currency for a long time and use it to pay for big financial transactions. For more advice on using electronic currency, please read here.

Referred Links:
http://projects.tigweb.org/ecurrency/about/
http://www.learncurrencytradingonline.com/electronic-currency-trading.html
http://www.selfseo.com/story-6264.php
http://pages.ebay.ie/community/aboutebay/news/pressreleases/PayPal/11_2004.html

Here Comes the Phish?

2009-06-26T16:32:00.004+08:00

Phishing is a popular method to capture personal data such as passwords, transaction numbers and credit card details. In a phishing scam, a malicious person tries to get information like credit card numbers, passwords, account information, or other personal information from you by convincing you to give it to them under false pretences. Phishing schemes usually come via spam e-mail or pop-up windows.

How does phishing work?

To make this work they have to capture your data on one of their servers. A phishing scam begins with a malicious user who sends out millions of fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to come from popular Web sites or from sites that you trust, like your bank or credit card company. The e-mail messages, and the Web sites they often send you to, look official enough that they deceive many people into believing that they're legitimate. Believing that these e-mails are legitimate, unsuspecting people too often respond to the e-mail's requests for their credit card numbers, passwords, account information, or other personal information.

A scam artist might put a link in a fake e-mail that appears to go to the legitimate Web site, but actually takes you to a scam site or even a pop-up window that looks exactly like the official site. These copies are often called spoofed Web sites. Once you're at one of these spoofed sites or pop-up windows you might unwittingly enter even more personal information that will be transmitted directly to the person who created the spoofed site. That person can then use this information to purchase goods, apply for a new credit card, or steal your identity.

Local Case

There was once phishing sites created to lure unsuspecting Maybank2u online customers to surrender their User ID and Password. Here is a sample email that has gotten onto some local Malaysian scam/spam e-mail list.

The URL in the email is pointing to a phishing page. It looks very much similar to an actual Maybank page. Maybank users will be particularly prone to falling for this, and they even ask for the TAC code - so the access they will have will be dangerous.

Prevention Methods

Just as they do in the physical world, scam artists will continue to develop new and more sinister ways to trick you online. Don't worry, here we teach you 5 simple tips to protect yourself from phishing. By following these five tips can help you protect your personal information:

Tip 1: Never respond to requests for personal information via e-mail

Legitimate companies don’t ask for this information via email. If you do receive an e-mail requesting this kind of information, don't respond. Also, make sure to ignore call-to-action e-mails such as “Your account will be terminated.” Call the company on the phone instead, using a phone number that you verify outside of the e-mail.

For a list of sample phishing scam e-mails that people have received, check the Anti-Phishing Working Group Phishing Archive.

Tip 2: Visit Web sites by typing the URL into your address bar

If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company’s correct Web address. In any case, don’t cut and paste the link in the message.

Tip 3: Check to make sure the Web site is using encryption

If you can't trust a Web site by the address bar, how do you know it's likely to be secure? Read more in our previous post on Digital Certificate. Generally, before you enter any personal information, check to see if the Web site uses encryption to transmit your personal information. In Internet Explorer you can do this by checking the yellow lock icon on the status bar as shown in the following illustration.
Secure site lock icon. If the lock is closed, then the site uses encryption.

Tip 4: Routinely review your credit card and bank statements

Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to determine whether there are any unauthorized charges. Even if you follow the three steps above, you may still become a victim of identity theft. If you review your bank statement and credit card statements at least monthly, you may be able to catch a scam artist and stop them before they cause significant damage.

Tip 5: Report suspected abuses of your personal information to the proper authorities

If you feel you have been a victim of a phishing scam, you should immediately report the scam to the company that's being spoofed. If you're unsure how to contact the company, visit the company's Web site to get the correct contact information. The company may have a special e-mail address to report such abuse. Remember not to follow any links in the phishing e-mail you received. You should type the known Web site address for the company directly into the address bar in your Internet browser.

To all our readers: Knowing how to recognize phishers, and what to do if you think you have been a victim, can help protect you and your family. Remember: Don't Take The Bait!

Referred Links:
http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/phishing.htm
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/phishing.htm
http://www.mcafee.com/us/_tier2/products/_media/mcafee/wp_antiphishing.pdf
http://www.networksecurityjournal.com/features/44-ways-protect-phishing/
http://netsecurity.about.com/od/security101/a/phishprotect.htm

Password is no longer Secret?

2009-06-25T13:16:00.002+08:00

Recently I have read a blog post on Internet Security about several favorite passwords used online by users. Indeed, passwords are one of the web's most important security tools. Whether it's for your Blogger account, your Amazon account, your online banking or your MSN account, choosing a good password and keeping it safe can go a long way toward protecting your information online.

Hackers have developed a whole range of tools to get at your personal data, and one of the simplest ways to gain access to your information is through the use of a Brute Force Attack. They will systematically try a large number of possible passwords to hack your accounts. And how fast could this be done? Well, that depends on three main things, the length and complexity of your password, the speed of the hacker’s computer, and the speed of the hacker’s Internet connection. Generally it is listed in the table below.

Password Length	All Characters	Only Lowercase
3 characters 4 characters 5 characters 6 characters 7 characters 8 characters 9 characters 10 characters 11 characters 12 characters 13 characters 14 characters	0.86 seconds 1.36 minutes 2.15 hours 8.51 days 2.21 years 2.10 centuries 20 millennia 1,899 millennia 180,365 millennia 17,184,705 millennia 1,627,797,068 millennia 154,640,721,434 millennia	0.02 seconds .046 seconds 11.9 seconds 5.15 minutes 2.23 hours 2.42 days 2.07 months 4.48 years 1.16 centuries 3.03 millennia 78.7 millennia 2,046 millennia

As you can see, hackers can easily compromise your password; especially in the case that you are using a weak password.

Fortunately, it is not hard to create strong passwords and keep them well protected. And here several simple steps provided by Microsoft Security article which I found it useful and worth for sharing:

Step 1:
Think of a sentence that you can remember. This will be the basis of your strong password or pass phrase. Use a memorable sentence, such as "My son Aiden is three years old."

Step 2:
Check if the computer or online system supports the pass phrase directly. If you can use a pass phrase (with spaces between characters) on your computer or online system, do so.

Step 3:
If the computer or online system does not support pass phrases, convert it to a password. Take the first letter of each word of the sentence that you've created to create a new, nonsensical word. Using the example above, you'd get: "msaityo".

Step 4:
Add complexity by mixing uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. It is valuable to use some letter swapping or misspellings as well. For instance, in the pass phrase above, consider misspelling Aiden's name, or substituting the word "three" for the number 3. There are many possible substitutions, and the longer the sentence, the more complex your password can be. Your pass phrase might become "My SoN Ayd3N is 3 yeeRs old." If the computer or online system will not support a pass phrase, use the same technique on the shorter password. This might yield a password like "MsAy3yo".

Step 5:
Finally, substitute some special characters. You can use symbols that look like letters, combine words (remove spaces) and other ways to make the password more complex. Using these tricks, we create a pass phrase of "MySoN 8N i$ 3 yeeR$ old" or a password (using the first letter of each word) "M$8ni3y0".

Step 6:
Test your new password with Password Checker here. Password Checker is a non-recording feature on this Web site that helps determine your password's strength as you type.

And of course, keep your passwords secret and treat them with as much care as the information that they protect. Don't wait until it is too late for taking any action. To my reader: Please, be safe. It’s a jungle out there.

Referred Links:
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2009/02/favourite-passwords-used-online.html
http://elamb.org/good-password-tips-and-password-management/
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/create.mspx
http://financialsoft.about.com/od/softwaretips/tp/Password_Tips.htm
http://www.watchingthenet.com/how-to-create-strong-passwordsand-remember-them.html
http://www.unixnewbie.org/creating-a-strong-password/

How to Safeguard Our Personal and Financial Data?

2009-06-24T11:40:00.013+08:00

Internet scams, phishing, identity theft and other attacks that exploit your personal data are always a threat when you shop online, set up an email account, use a credit card, manage an online bank account or carry your identity card. There is hope, however, for fighting these threats, and you can start by taking back control of all of your personal data.

I have searched over the internet and compiled a top ten tips to safeguard our personal and financial data, which I found them most useful and practical:

1.Make sure anti-virus and anti-spyware are installed and up-to-date
One of the easiest and most basic things you can do to reclaim control of your personal data is to use comprehensive, multi-faceted anti-virus software on your computer. Virus protection over personal computers and physical access controls should be used and updated regularly. There are many anti spyware downloads that you come across on the internet such as Symantec, Kaspersky and AVG antivirus are popular software use by computer users. You can install and regularly update antivirus and anti-spam software from Download.com.

2.Use strong, varied passwords.
When creating passwords, you should avoid a commonly used nickname, birthdates, family member or pet's name, or your on-line screen name. Instead, use a phrase or a series of letters and numbers. Passwords should be changed regularly and do not share your password with anyone.Use different passwords for different applications, so that if one password is compromised, you haven’t compromised all of your accounts. For more tips on creating a strong passwords, please visit here.

3. Beware of Fraudulent Websites
Be on the watch for fraudulent websites which are very similar to that of a real financial institution. Look for privacy policy on the website you visit in order to confirm the website’s legitimacy, particularly if you will be entering your credit card or other sensitive information on the site. You need to understand with whom your information will be shared, and how it will be secured before providing it.

4. Don't save email settings or password settings.
Online banking sites, social-media Web sites and shopping sites let users save their passwords and log-in information to save their time. Saving this information makes it easy for someone to jump on your account and access your information if they're working on your system. So, it's better to disable your browser's "remember password" settings.

5. Keep Your Sensitive Information Secret
You should never send highly sensitive information like credit card details or medical information through an unencrypted e-mail and beware of e-mails with attachments requesting password updates or your financial information. Besides, you should protect your e-mail address by setting up one e-mail for your trusted personal and business contacts and a separate one for other on-line usage. Always remove your mail promptly from your mailbox so as to prevent identity thieves from finding and recording any personal information.

6.Watch Out for Shared Computers.
Avoid using public computers for your own personal financial transitions. If you are using a public computer, remember to close the browser window. This is to prevent other users from reading your personal information and mail.

7. Secure your wireless network.
You are at risk if you access the Internet from a Wi-Fi network. Since your wireless network’s radio waves travel through walls, a hacker with a simple antenna could attack you from miles away to steal your information and use your wireless network for their own communication. Thus, set up a secure account on your Wi-Fi network so that other users can't log on to your account and access saved passwords.

8. Configure and use a firewall.
A firewall adds a security layer between your PC and the Internet, and helps stop hackers from stealing your identity, destroying your files, or using your PC to attack others. Windows come with firewall service, but if you want to replace it with a better one, check out these top-rated firewalls before you make your choice.

9.Clear your browser’s cache after an online transaction.
Sometimes your browser will save certain information you typed into forms, etc when you are online, so it’s always good to clear that after you’re done. Simply press Ctrl + Shift + Delete keys simultaneously to clear your browser's cache.

10. Make regular backups of critical data.
If possible, keep your personal and sensitive data off your computer. Otherwise, keep a copy of important files on removable media such as flash drive or recordable CD-ROM disks (CD-R or CD-RW disks). Keep it in a safe place and if you need to refer to the documents, then just plug in your drive.

In overall, even though shielding your private personal and financial information with no risk of a breakdown may be impossible these days, but its critical to understand how your privacy can be compromised and take a few simple steps to, if nothing else, better the odds in your favor.

Beyond these ten tips, and if you have any important tips that I've skipped, tell me about it in the comments.

Referred Links:
http://ezinearticles.com/?id=91750
http://www.articlesbase.com/personal-injury-articles/protect-yourself-from-identity-theft-tips-to-keep-your-data-safe-754155.html
http://www.squidoo.com/theftidentity

The threat of Online Security: How safe is our Data?

2009-06-23T09:59:00.025+08:00

As Internet users display personal information on social networking Web sites, and office workers upload more sensitive data to online software programs. Most people have experienced some kind of online security threat to their business or personal data. Therefore, it is important for the computer users to understand the possible online security threats to their data.

There are many latest online security threats to attack users of computers. The followings are some of the potential online security threats that can be found:

Spyware attack:

Spyware is the most common online security threat faced by Internet users. Spyware is a form of malicious software designed to interrupt or take partial control of a computer's operation without the consent of that computer’s user. The software will typically be installed on the computer without knowing it. It will steal the computer users’ personal information such as documents, passwords, credit card numbers, bank accounts, and many others to another source. Common spyware includes Trojan horses, keyloggers. Spyware threatens the computer's operation and information for the benefit of a third party.

Mitigation: There are a number of programs available that offer spyware removal and detection and can be downloaded for free at sites like freedownload.com.

Hacking by others:

Most security threats are made by hackers. Hacker, Attacker, or Intruder - These terms are applied to the people who seek to exploit weaknesses in software and computer systems for their own gain. For example, steal the basic information: bank account, credit card code, user name, passwords. Computer hacking involves of the privacy data of others, or damage to computer-based property such as files, web pages or software.

Mitigation: To prevent hackers from breaching your computer system.You will need a firewall or anti-hacker software to stop them in their tracks.

Identity theft:

Identity theft occurs when a criminal uses another person's personal information to take on that person's identity. Identity theft is much more than misuse of a Social Security number. For example, Identity Theft occurs when someone wrongfully uses your personal identification to obtain credit, loans, services, even rentals and mortgages in your name.

Mitigation: Be very mindful of with whom you share your personal information. When a stranger person calls, never give out any of your personal information.

Computer virus:

A computer virus is a self-replicating/self-reproducing program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. Viruses are one of several types of malicious software or malware. A basic rule is that computer viruses cannot directly damage hardware, but only software. Often, when a virus infects your computer it can wipe out data, significantly affect computer operation, and use your Internet connection to spread.

Mitigation: The best way to protect yourself from a virus is to use an anti-virus program on your computer such as, AVG, Avira, Kasperkey. And also avoid suspicious-looking Web sites.

In conclusion, prevention is better than cure. Computer users may need to install a useful anti-virus program in order to avoid those threats. It is also worth using what is known as a “strong” password. which is not easily to guess.

Referred Links:
http://www.bsagovernment.com/downloads/MajorOnlineThreats.pdf
http://www.entrepreneur.com/technology/techtrendscolumnistpeteralexander/article78616.html
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/53/34/40724457.pdf
http://www.pcworld.com/article/157106/17_highrisk_security_threats_and_how_to_fix_them.html

Third Party Certification: Reducing Customers' Fears

2009-06-22T13:54:00.004+08:00

While viruses are spreading over the Internet, spywares are waiting for chances to grab your credit card number, customers feel unsafe to conduct transaction through Internet. They want to make sure that they are dealing with trusted parties and they need to ensure that their information traveled over the Internet reaches the intended recipients and is safe from intruders.

That is why Certification Authority (CA) comes into picture. They are Trusted Third Party that issues Digital Certificates for use by other parties.

What is a Digital Certificate?
Digital Certificate, also known as SSL certificate (Secure Socket Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. SSL ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral.

Why Digital Certificate is important?
Digital Certificate is a single source to combat all the fraudulent transaction prevailing on the Internet. It not only encrypts all the data which is shared between the client and a server but also helps in gaining the trust of online customers while they are logging in their account or while purchasing any product from a website.

How does it work?

1. A browser requests a secure page (usually https://).

2. The web server sends its public key with its certificate.

3. The browser checks that the certificate was issued by a trusted party (usually a trusted root CA), that the certificate is still valid and that the certificate is related to the site contacted.

4. The browser then uses the public key, to encrypt a random symmetric encryption key and sends it to the server with the encrypted URL required as well as other encrypted http data.

5. The web server decrypts the symmetric encryption key using its private key and uses the symmetric key to decrypt the URL and http data.

6. The web server sends back the requested html document and http data encrypted with the symmetric key.

7. The browser decrypts the http data and html document using the symmetric key and displays the information.

Also notice that users will have a padlock showing on bottom right of their browser signifying an SSL connection. All it means is that users have an encrypted channel/link with that certificate owner.

Where to get Digital Certificate?
As stated earlier, entity can purchase digital certificate from different Certification Authority (CA) worldwide. Below are two significant CAs around us:

VeriSign : It is the largest CA behind the encryption and authentication on the Internet VeriSign now has more than 3,000,000 certificates in operation for everything from military to financial services and retail applications. It operates digital infrastructure services that enable and protect billions of interactions every day across the world's voice, video and data networks.

MSC Trustgate : It is a licensed Certification Authority operating within the Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor. MSC Trustgate was incorporated in 1999 to meet the growing need for secure open network communications and become the catalyst for the growth of e-commerce, both locally and across the ASEAN region. MSC Trustgate has also been an affiliate of VeriSign since 2000, focused on reselling VeriSign's Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services. They have recently extended their partnership to deliver identity and authentication services in Malaysia.

In overall, digital verification is crucial to E-commerce success as it could establish customers' trust. However, I would like to point out that even a web-page is supported by digital certificate, there's no such thing as perfectly safe. There are still ways that the credit card number could be grabbed, but luckily not from the server during the transaction. Nevertheless, at least businesses have taken possible steps to ensure online transaction is as safe as can be.

Referred Links:
http://www.verisign.com/
http://www.msctrustgate.com/
http://www.verisign.com.sg/press/2008/20081020.html
http://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-support/guides/ssl-certificate-introduction.html
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-digital-certificates.htm
http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/315/Digital-Certificate-Authority.html

How Do Google, Amazon.com, eBay Make Money?

2009-06-19T11:14:00.003+08:00

High-volume websites, such as Google, Amazon.com and eBay, they are also the major players in e-commerce industry. However, these company whose without a physical store like any others in the real commercial world, how do they survive and even make billion of revenues every quarter of the year? (In their first quarter 2009 financial results, Google has announced revenues of $5.51 billion; Amazon.com has announced net sales of $4.89 billion; and eBay has also reported revenue of $2.02 billion).

Most e-commerce businesses' revenue models consist of sales, transaction fees, subscription fees. advertising fees and affiliate fees. How about these giant web-based firms?

Google is famous of its search engine. On the surface, a search engine, no matter its popularity, doesn't seem like the most profitable of ventures. However, from its most recent financial results, Google has earned nearly 97% of its total revenues from advertising fees.

You may not notice it, but when you perform a search in Google, sponsored links appear on the top and right side of the screen. These are advertisers that make a business agreement with Google in order to get their ads displayed alongside the results of the most appropriate searches. That way, people searching for dinosaur toys may find people dinosaur toys with the sponsored links.

Google uses an AdWords system that allows a potential advertisers to specify the search terms they would like to specify as the words that, when searched, will display their ads.

Google AdWords is a pay per click advertising program. How much does Google charge for every click on the ads? The price advertisers pay for a click depends on a lot of factors and this is where Google is playing smart. They use some sort of bidding system. When you want to advertise with Google, you select keywords you are targeting. Let’s say I own a toy store and I want to bring potential customers to my website. I’m going to bid on the keywords “toy” and “buy toy” for example. The price I’m going to pay will depend if there is other companies bidding for that keyword. The more companies are fighting for a keyword, the more I’m going to pay for a single click to my website. The price can vary from $0.01 to $100 and more.

Amazon is the largest online retailer in America. Its revenue majorly generated from retail sale of books, music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, software, consumer electronics, and more. Since 2005, Amazon also began selling products under its own private label, "Pinzon".

The initial trademark applications suggested the company intended to focus on textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods.

Apart from that, Amazon also earns substantial transaction Fees under the program of Amazon Marketplace. Amazon Marketplace is Amazon.com's fixed-price online marketplace that allows sellers to offer their goods alongside Amazon's offerings. Buyers can buy new and used items sold directly by a third party through Amazon.com using Amazon Marketplace. Upon every completed transaction, Amazon charges a commission rate based on the sale price, a transaction fee, and a variable closing fee.

Additionally, Amazon even generates revenue from charging advertising fees as well. Amazon will display advertisers' ads in highly targeted placements throughout the Amazon.com site. It is also a pay per click advertising program and the price charged ranged between $0.15 and $1.00 per click.

eBay is a global virtual marketplace where businesses and individuals can buy and sell practically anything. Unlike Amazon, eBay does not sell goods by itself and instead, eBay is an online auction hosting in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety goods and services worldwide. Therefore, a huge portion of its revenue comes from transaction fees which eBay charges to the seller based on a certain percentage of sales prices.

Browsing and bidding on auctions is free, but sellers are charged transaction fees for the right to sell their goods on eBay. There are two kinds of transaction fees:

When an item is listed on eBay, a non-refundable insertion fee is charged based on the seller's opening bid on the item.
Once the auction is completed, a final value fee is charged. This fee is generally starting from 8.75% of the final sale price.

EBay also up-sells its listing fees with enhanced auction features, including highlighted or bold listings, featured status, and other ways for sellers to increase the visibility of their items.

Although the methods of making money in e-commerce are endlessly evolving, they are all moving toward a win-win approach. Just like our Malaysia local free newspaper, theSun, publisher earns revenue from advertising income; advertisers get increased business by drawing public attention; and reader can get free newspaper throughout the weekdays, so it is a win-win-win situation.

Referred Links:
http://www.organicspam.com/google_revenue_model.asp
http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Amazon.com
http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/EBay_(EBAY)
http://www.wikinvest.com/wiki/Amazon.com_(AMZN)

A review on Real-World case: Google is changing everything.

2009-06-18T14:42:00.047+08:00

Use Google to conduct a search. What advertisements appear next to the search result?
The advertisements appear will be relevant to your Google search result. Every advertisement has its keywords, which are words or phrases related to the advertisements. When we conduct comprehensive keyword search, what keywords people are keying into Google, they are searching for the advertisements of products/services too. When people search on Google using one of the advertisement keywords, the advertisements will appear next to the search results.

What is Google trying to do with spreadsheets?

Google is diving further into the Web-based productivity-applications market by offering a new product that combines its online word-processing and spreadsheet programs. It called “Google Spreadsheets”. It will compete with the Microsoft’s Excel.

The Google Spreadsheets is a Web based spreadsheet. It will not require any application to be installed on the user's computer, and documents created would be saved on Google's servers. The service provides automatic saving, so once a document is saved for the first time it is saved upon every change, as well as enables easy transfer of data from cell to cell, inserting and deleting of rows and columns and supports multiple sheets or tabs.

Moreover, a user could access the document from any computer with a Web browser. Up to 50 spreadsheets could be saved at one time. Thus, the Spreadsheet owners can use the sheet protection feature to lock sheets so they can only be edited by collaborators the owner chooses. Additionally, the application would allow multiple people to edit the spreadsheet simultaneously. All users would see changes as they were made, with an area available to chat if needed.

What is an enterprise search?

Google aims to put enterprise search into the servers of small and medium-sized businesses. Enterprise search is an extensive search system that provides the means to search both structured and unstructured data sources with a single query. It addresses the needs of businesses that need to store, retrieve and track digital information of all kinds. Enterprise search systems provide users with fast query times and search results that are usually ranked in such a way that the information you need is easily accessible.

BearingPoint and Google are working together to bring powerful but simple Google search solutions to complex enterprise environments. BearingPoint extends Google's search capabilities by offering companies customized search technology tailored for specific business environments in industries such as pharmaceuticals, banking, brokerage, high-tech and aerospace.

Identify potential revenue models in Google’s activities and on its Web site.

Google runs on close to 500,000 servers. It has grown more quickly than any other E-commerce company, and it started to generate profit faster than most start-ups. Recently, Google is trying to reinvent the spreadsheet as a Web-based application. Google is generating considerable revenue selling advertising on its free web-based applications. Google is advertising throughout its web-based applications, but offers this software ad-free for a fee. In addition to its advertising-supported edition of Google Docs, Google also provides a Premier Edition that offers more storage and support for $50 a year per user. Other companies, such as Salesforce.com, rely primarily on subscription-based revenue.

The social networks such as YouTube, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook all are in this same boat. Google seems confident YouTube will have fair command of the market in due time. MySpace and Facebook have, at least right now and for the foreseeable future, huge audiences to leverage.

How do Google’s services benefit a company such as Kaiser?

· Easier delivery of information:
The Google Search Appliance 6.0 (GSA 6.0) brings fast, relevant search to your website or intranet. It allows users of Kaiser quickly search for the latest medical knowledge, medical product information and education material across the Kaiser’ network. With an Online presence users of Kaiser will have direct access to the information they can easily find just by visiting the website day or night. It not only benefits the users, but it's also generally easier for the organization to update the site. It saves the precious time for all of the doctors, nurses and other caregivers.

· Availability of public services:
Some medical knowledge are now available which were unavailable in the past. Nowadays, more and more people getting online every year, with the Google Search Appliance, there is the advanced search feature to quickly and efficiently pinpoint a specific diagnose and treatment. Non-profit organizations such as Kaiser may also benefits for people in the developing countries or Third World countries by providing diagnostic information, publication, educational material and other clinical.

Referred Book:
Turban, E., King, D., McKay, J., Marshall, P., Lee, J., & Viehland, D. (2008). Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective 2008 (International Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Education International.

Referred Links:
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3611576
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/06/06/google-spreadsheets-almost-launches/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2009/06/indexing-a-billion-documents-with-google-search-ap.php

Will E-Commerce Surely Lead To Success?

2009-06-17T15:40:00.013+08:00

With the widespread Internet usage, the amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily. A lot of firms have gained huge success in e-commerce industry, such as Google, eBay and Amazon.com. However, looking back in the history of e-commerce, there is no guarantee of success in its implementation, as it is shown during the doom of Dot-com disaster. (Dot-com disaster refers to the sudden free-fall of the stock-market indicators around the year 2000 and a lot of new Internet-based companies failed during that period.)

Pets.com is one among many other online retailers that failed as a business-to-consumer e-commerce entity. It was launched in November 1998 and it is a San Francisco-based e-retailer existing only as a virtual firm that offered pet products, information, and resources to consumers. I found Pets.com’s failure particularly interesting because of how quickly the company failed although how well known the company was running a creative advertising campaign. Here is a link to some of their commercials, they’re pretty amusing.

Pets.com appeared to be on a road to success in the beginning of 1999, but sadly, the success never brought profits for the online firm and Pets.com decided to close its doors in November, 2000 just two years after its launch. There are several reason that lead to the failure of Pets.com:

Failed to Differentiate Itself from Competitors
Although Pets.com along with its main online competitors (Petstore.com, Petopia.com, Petsmart.com, and PetPlanet.com) received large sums of venture capital funding and even with the support of Dot.com giant Amazon to keep it going, it was not unique and did not offer consumers anything different from the other online pet supplies retailers. Pets.com failed to compete with a unique positioning strategy but instead decided to compete with low prices just like its competitors. This mistake led to the selling of merchandise at prices below cost for the duration of its operations.

Wrong Market Targeted
Pets.com entered into it entered a market of selling low-margin food and supplies that are extremely costly to ship to consumers. Many consumers just preferred to shop at local discount stores such as the grocery stores where they would be shopping for food anyway. Pets.com failed to offer customers a better alternative to what they already had. Shopping online for these kinds of products was not any more convenient for them than shopping at an actual retail store.

Inexperienced Managing Body
The hierarchy of the company was in shambles as the CEO and managing body had little or no experience in running a company. The company went public only a few months after its initial launch as the management assumed that the market and its revenues would grow quickly enough to allow for a profit before funding money was exhausted.

Excessive Spending on Marketing and Advertising
Since funding was continuously available during the beginning months of Pets.com, they did not think twice about spending everything in hopes of increasing consumer awareness of the business which would hopefully lead to increased sales. The goal was to outspend competitors and then adjust prices when the competition decreased. Their commercials featured a dog sock puppet and their slogan was “because pets can’t drive”. Unfortunately, marketing expenditures did not establish Pets.com as a market leader, but instead just brought higher revenues to all pet e-retailers.

Poor Customer Position
Pets.com never really gave consumers a good reason for their existence. As a customer, why would you buy their pet supplies online if you could just buy them at your local grocery store without have to wait days to receive orders and pay shipping costs too. An example is kitty litter, if it was required, one cannot order it online and wait for it to come, they must go out and purchase immediately.

In overall, although Pets.com did have a very valuable domain name, a strong e-commerce affiliate, a very popular mascot, and other clever marketing ideas and strategies, but none proved to be truly successful in the end. It is a meaningful lesson to me as it demonstrated that the costs of doing business online are not always greater than the benefits for some firms. Therefore, e-commerce might not be a guarantee of success which is applicable to all kind of industries.

Referred Links:
http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulebreaker/2000/rulebreaker001114.htm
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/11/08/BU20466.DTL&type=printable
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-248230.html
http://www.uky.edu/~dsianita/695ec/failure.html

Milestone in the History of E-Commerce: iTunes

2009-06-16T20:03:00.005+08:00

"Apple" has now become a well-known brand around the world, but at one time (around 1996 or 97), Apple Inc. was written off as a company soon to perish. However, Steve Jobs regained control of the company he founded and turned it around; then the introduction of iTunes Music Store in 2003 has deeply revolutionized the way consumers bought music.

This is the first time Apple's attempt to sell music on the Internet and it was so successful that the company sold over one million songs in its first few weeks online. In under a week, Apple seems to have established itself as the largest online music company in the world.

How does the company succeed at generating interest in paid legal music downloads while the global music sales have fallen and the music industry is hit badly by illegal downloading? The success is attributed to several factors:

Flexibility in How the Bought Music Can be Used
Previous attempts to sell music on the Internet were primarily based on a subscription service model and used proprietary formats. The record industry went overboard on copy protection schemes (known as DRM-Digital Rights Management), and the public wouldn't buy it.
The iTunes Music Store offers groundbreaking personal use rights that allow users to burn songs onto an unlimited number of CDs for personal use, listen to songs on an unlimited number of iPods, play songs on up to three Macintosh® computers, and use songs in other applications on the Mac.

Large Music Selection
In whatever business, the product is very important, regardless of the sales model. The iTunes Music Store launched initially over 200,000 songs from major music companies including BMG, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal, and Warner and lets customers quickly find, purchase and download the music they want for just 99 cents per song. The store now has more than 10,000,000 songs, and as of the January 2009 Macworld Expo, Apple has announced that all music in iTunes will be available without DRM, and encoded at the higher-quality rate of 256 kbit/s.

Unique Shopping Experiences
Music lovers can easily find the hits they love and discover gems they’ve never heard before by listening to free 30-second high-quality previews of any song in the store, then purchase and download their favorite songs or complete albums in pristine digital quality with just one click. Users can explore music in an entirely new way by easily searching the entire music store to instantly locate any song by title, artist or album, or browse the entire collection of songs by genre, artist and album.

Integrate Online Shop into Music Players
Initially, the iTunes Music Store is fully integrated into iTunes 4, the fourth major release of Apple’s popular digital music jukebox software, allowing users to purchase, download, organize and listen to their music using just one computer application. Then, it has been subsequently integrated into iPhone and iPod Touch to allow owners to purchase music and download podcasts directly on these portable music devices.

Apple's success with iTunes marks a milestone in the history of ecommerce. The success provides me a valuable lesson for marketing on the Internet. It is important to provide added value to internet users to break away from the traditional shopping preferences, just like what Apple did, by provided a seamlessly integrated system that required very little effort for the consumer to use.

Referred Links:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/may/05musicstore.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/110482/apple_unveils_online_music_service.html
http://mindsplice.com/caultonreply.html
http://tntluoma.com/rants/music-labels-irked-by-jobsitunes-success/
http://thedigitalblur.com/2007/08/01/itunes-success-impact-on-digital-marketing/

The History & Evolution of E-Commerce

2009-06-15T18:35:00.023+08:00

E-Commerce which is short for electronic commerce, is the process used to distribute, buy, sell or market goods and services, and the transfer of funds online, through electronic communications or networks. Meanwhile, the process of buying or selling of goods and services included domestic as well as international trade.

How E-Commerce Start?

The emergence of electronic commerce started in the early 1970s with the earliest example electronic funds transfer (EFT), which allows organizations to transfer funds between one another electronically. Then another technology electronic interchange (EDI) was introduced which allows businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically.

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser, World Wide Web by using a NeXT computer.

In 1992, The first records of a company letting people buy things off the computer is present as early as 1992 in the form of CompuServe (first major commercial online service in the United States). This great revolution brought the first chance ever for the people to purchase things through the computer.

In 1994, Netscape was introduced. It was user friendly and also provided Secure Sockets Layer which was a safe online transaction technology.

In 1995, Amazon.com and eBay.com were launched. It was a major factor for such an unprecedented growth of E-Commerce industry.

In 1998, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) came into action which provided fast, always on-Internet Service to subscribers.

In 1999, Business.com stated that retail spending over the internet climbed up to a cool twenty billion dollars.

In 2000, The dot-com disaster.

Web 1.0
Web 1.0 is a retronym which refers to the state of the World Wide Web, and any website design style used before the advent of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. It is the general term that has been created to describe the Web in 2001, which is seen by many as a turning point for the internet.

Web 2.0

The concept of Web 2.0 began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International in 2004. Basically, Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of web development and design that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashup and folksonomies.

Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

The shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 can be seen as a result of technological refinements, which included such adaptations as "broadband, improved browsers, and Ajax, to the rise of Flash application platforms and the mass development of wigetization, such as Flickr and YouTube badges.

Highlights for the year 2008 & the first quarter of 2009:

The Cen sus Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced that the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the first quarter of 2009 was $31.7 billion, an increase of 0.7 percent (±1.1%) from the fourth quarter of 2008. The first quarter 2009 e-commerce estimate decreased 5.4 percent (±2.5%) from the first quarter of 2008. E-commerce sales in the first quarter of 2009 accounted for 3.5 percent of total sales.

On a not adjusted basis, the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the first quarter of 2009 totaled $30.2 billion, a decrease of 17.7 percent (±1.1%) from the fourth quarter of 2008. The first quarter 2009 e-commerce estimate decreased 5.7 percent (±2.5%) from the first quarter of 2008. E-commerce sales in the first quarter of 2009 accounted for 3.6 percent of total sales.

Source from: http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/data/html/09Q1.html

In Malaysia, since the introduction of the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) JARING back in 1990, and later TMNET in 1996, the growth of Internet usage in Malaysia has been steadily growing. The first e-commerce in Malaysia was started by Pizza Hut in year 1994.

In conclusion, the future of e-commerce is certainly even brighter as compared to the current situation although some experts do express some concerns over the growing expansion of e-commerce and its influence in international trade, import/export and global sourcing.

Referred Links:
http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/courses/nmpspring01/brown/Revstream/history.htm
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/history-of-ecommerce-221634.html
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles6/world-wide-web-evolution.htm
http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

About Us

2009-06-09T21:44:00.019+08:00

Welcome abroad. This blog is established mainly for the purpose of the course (E-Commerce) in UTAR. Of course, it also serves as a platform for us to share some useful information in this field, and yours constructive comments are always warmly appreciated. We are all currently final year undergraduates in UTAR Sungai Long campus and a brief detail about us as below:

Wong Wai Hong (Daniel): Simple enough, I’m an ordinary student but with a hectic lifestyle. I see myself as a serious computer gamer and I enjoy indulging myself in gaming world. Nevertheless, this hobby comes in only during leisure. Besides, like many other men, I love technology and gadgets. And lastly, I also do a lot of internet surfing every day. Five websites on my must-surf list are:

1. www.cnet.com – With frequent and rapid update, this website brings me the latest news on high-tech gadgets, latest product reviews and many more.
2. www.gamespot.com – A famous video gaming website around the world. Recently it attracted me to another addictive game – Plants vs Zombies.
3. www.google.com – For me, it is still an invincible search engine on the earth even though Microsoft’s Bing has just launched. Useful for everything with question marks.
4. www.gmail.com – Checking mail is fun, but somehow tedious. G-mail has become my default e-mail, and also for blogging purpose.
5. wble.utar.edu.my – Good thing to bring academic interactions online, and thus regularly visiting this learning platform has become a routine of my life.

Tai Ka Choon (Frankie): Hi everyone, I come from Ipoh. Interesting part on me is I love football so much, and it has become my hobby since I was a child. Playing football is my favourite sport and I usually play as a striker in my team. It is interesting and amazing, especially the feeling when I score a goal. Moreover, in my opinion, football is not only about passing and kicking the ball but also required a lot of thought, stamina and some basic skills. So I often practice it and obviously, I feel healthy and stronger. I also enjoy spending time on internet. Internet activities are relaxing, educational, and can be a lot of fun if you go to the right websites. My top five websites are:

1. www.youtube.com - I not only like playing football but also enjoy watching some football tricks on this website. Plenty of funny videos are also available right there.
2. www.facebook.com - It is a Social Networking. When I get bored, I will log on and visit some of my friends’ photo.
3. www.google.com - It is very informative searching engine. Most of my assignment information is searched from there.
4. www.hotmail.com – Obviously, I use it to check mails all the time. With that, I can stay in contact with my family and friends.
5. www.freesoftwaredownload.com – It offer plenty of shareware and moreover, the service is free. My helpful converter and defragmenter are also obtained from there.

Ooi Hui Mei – I’m from Penang, and luckily with UTAR, I have made a lot of obliging and trustworthy friends, and even lecturers. I’m a social person, and thus during my leisure time, I always like to hangout with my friends and surf the Internet so that I can stay connected with them. Also, by surfing the Internet, I obtained a lot of information, especially from these websites:

1. www.hotmail.com - This is the website I used to check my e-mails which are received from my friends and family. I usually communicate with my friends who are pursuing their studies in foreign country by e-mails. With e-mails, I could always share my happiness and difficulties with them.
2. www.utar.edu.my - UTAR website is the website which I visit the most frequently. By login into UTAR intranet, I’m able to download past year examination paper and get inform of any updated announcement.
3. www.google.com - Google is my favorite search engines, and so I used to visit this website to search for online articles and all kind of information. Besides, Google Scholar is helpful for me to search for academic journals to conduct my assignments and research project.
4. www.thestar.com.my - The Star Online is the website which I can read news and articles. From this website, I can obtain information related to education, technology and business.
5. www.facebook.com - Facebook is the website which I usually share my photos with my friends and family. Besides, I even use this website to play games with my friends.

Lee Hui Zien - Hi everyone, I came from Penang as well. I was once a typical outdoor person and I enjoy playing volleyball so much. But recently the burning hot weather in Malaysia has kept me in my room most of the time. And now I’ve changed my habits into catching the latest episodes of TV shows and listening to mostly emotional music. It also reflected in my every day internet surf list:

1.www.google.com – It is a very useful search engine in my daily life. It helps me a lot in completing my assignment.
2.www.ppstream.com – Movie has occupied the large part of my life. I always watch my favorite shows on this website.
3.www.hotmail.com – It helps me to keep in touch with my friends and family via e-mail.
4.www.kuwo.cn – This website provides me with the most comprehensive music database, to fit my different mood.
5.www.jbtalk.com – A picture is worth a thousand words. Whenever it’s time for laughter, this website brings me tons of funniest pictures, to fill myself with hilarious moments.