Ecommerce Diary

A discusiion on E-learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the students perpestive

2009-07-10T01:35:00.005+08:00

E-learning is the unifying term to describe the fields of online learning web-based training, and technology-delivered instruction.

Advantages:

1. Accessibility to all students

In Universities which provide electronic facilities to give their online students fast and qualified assistance. Students' interactions have become much easier than face-to-face communication.

2.Time flexibility

If student has question need to ask the tutor so he can send his query and write term paper at any time he can get access to the Internet.

3.Any place

Student does not have to meet with tutor. That means they can be anywhere.

Disadvantages:

1.Lack of face-to-face communication

The tutor would lack of undertanding student for example what is student's demands, interests and so on. The student can simply be lazy to learning because he having free time schedule for his e-learning.

2.Internet connection

If slow internet connection cause frustration.

3.Software and file

E-learning is managing computer files, software comfortability and learning new software. The file may be lost or misplaced to the learner without good computer organizational skills.

4.Learning

Managing learning software can involve a learning curve.

References:

http://www.2.unescobkk.org/education/ict/v2_2/info.asp?id=11043

http://www.articlealley.com/article_78603_45.html

Review a local, transactional e-commerce site

2009-07-09T23:27:00.039+08:00

Roommart is a start-up company which provides Malaysia’s 1st online roommate finder and accommodation search engine. It is a portal which helps students from higher learning institutions as well as working adult from outstation to find rooms, roommates and houses. Besides that, agents would be able to find their preferred tenants too, resulting in a two way communication unlike classified ads and a modern way to find accommodation since most of Roommart’s target market, students, spend hours on the internet.

It was founded by David Ng, a Multimedia University student, after realizing the difficulties faced by him and fellow students when looking for a place to live. He is the new and young generation of technopreneur, who has the maturity and intellect to take advantage of a business opportunity.

Roommart's Services?

• Looking for ROOMMATES? / PLACE TO STAY?
Either you are looking for a roommate, room or house. Roommart provides you a search engine that will match your preferences (e.g. location, rental rates,smoking or non-smoking) with your potential roommates, room or house.

• Are you a HOUSE OWNER? / PROPERTY AGENT?
Roommart provides you a place to list your property and also a database to search for tenants.

Payment methods?
Payments for Roommart services can be made by:

SMS
Credit Card
Mybank2you
Cheque or Bank Transfer
MOL e-points

Roommart provides homeseeker not only the convenience to look for houses, rooms, apartment that match their preference but also the suitable housemates. The services is inexpensive while some of them are free and almost cover whole Malaysia. Thus, it is a very useful tool for Malaysian students, just like me, who usually travel over states to further their study.

Read more:

E-government in Malaysia

2009-07-08T19:57:00.008+08:00

E-government, also known as electronic government, provide government services to citizens and provide citizens with more convenient access to government information by using information technology and e-commerce. There are several models of e-government :

1) Government-to-Citizens(G2C)
This is an e-government category which includes all the interactions between a government and its citizen. Citizens can interact with the government form their homes. Beside, it also enables citizens to ask questions and receive answer of government agencies.

2) Government-to-Business(G2B)
Interactions between government and businesses belong to this category. This relationship works two ways: government-to-business and business-to-government. Government sells products or provide services to businesses and businesses also sell goods or services to government.

3) Government-to-Government(G2G)
This category consists of activities within government units and between governments. Their objective is to improve the effectiveness or the efficiency of the government.

4) Government-to-Employees(G2E)
Activities and services between government units and employees are included in this category. This enables efficient communication between government and employees.

Implementation of e-government in Malaysia started since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by Malaysia government in 1996. There are some e-government project in Malaysia:

1) Generic Office Environment (GOE)
GOE aimed to introduce a fully integrated, distributed and scalable office environment that leverages use of multimedia use of technology.It enables efficient communication, allowing collaboration across all workers and ensure right information reach right people at right time.

2) Electronic Procurement Project
This project aims to re-engineer, automate and transform current procurement system. It covers central contract. tender and direct purchase. EP project also increase transparency, save times and money as it encourages suppliers to go electronic. Example for this project is eperolehan.

3) Human Resource Management Information System ( HRMIS )
This project provide single interface to perform human resource management functions effectively and efficiently by government employees.

4) Project Monitoring System ( PMS )
A mechanism created to monitor project implementation throughout various government agencies and statutory body. It also enables exchanging of ideas and demonstrate best practices in information management and communication services.

5) Electronic Service Directory ( eServices )
Citizens of Malaysia can have transactions with government and make payments such as electricity and telephone bills by this project.

6) Electronic Labor Exchange ( ELX )
The objective of this project is to mobilizations of human resources and optimize work force utilization. It enables matching of jobs seekers and jobs vacancies. For example, JobsMalaysia.gov.my.

7) E-Syariah
E-Syariah improves the quality services in Syariah courts and enhance the Islamic Affairs Department's effectiveness. It enables better monitoring and co-ordination of its agencies and improving the management of its 102 Syariah courts. For example, E-syariah portal.

Citizen's adoption strategies:

1) Enhance and strengthen existing e-government system
Improve the system and increase processing speed to serve citizens better. Make sure that information, data and application are reliable, accurate and updated.

2) Education and publicity
To encourage the adoption of e-government, education can help citizens have better understanding and knowledge of e-government. Publicity such as news or article in newspaper or website can increase citizens' awareness towards e-government.

3) Improve service quality
Service quality is important to encourage citizens to use e-government. Short processing time and ease of use of services provided can attract more citizens choose to use e-government. Besides, services provided must serve their needs.

Read more:

Malaysia Government Portal
E-goverment
Implementation of electronic government in Malaysia
Role of government: as an enabler, regulator, and provider of ICT based services

Corporate Blogging

2009-07-07T23:35:00.012+08:00

A new marketing communication tool for companies

Corporate blogs are business blogs for larger organizations. They help put a human face on the company allowing for direct communication and discussion. The corporate blog helps companies reach their organizational goals. With the proliferation of Web 2.0 tools, corporate blogging has gained a lot of prominence in the past few years. Enterprises have started acknowledging blogging as a positive marketing tool that, besides raising the company's visibility, also helps in highlighting organizations' freedom of expression.

There are some companies are hesitant to plunge into the world of blogging for fear of encountering legal and business risks inherent in blogging such as libel, slander, lawsuits and disclosure of confidential and proprietary information. However, some industry leaders like Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystems and General Motors, have dived headlong into corporate blogging. These companies recognize that a blog is an immensely effective yet low cost way to boost corporate communications and marketing objectives and at the same time connect with customers and prospects.

A corporate blog makes it easy for readers, be they customers or prospects, to find the latest and most accurate information about its new products and services. It can help achieve customer familiarity with the company products or services.

Through the corporate blog, a company can converse directly with customers and prospects. Two way communications creates trust and builds customer relationships. A corporate blog is the perfect choice for interacting with existing and potential clients.

Corporate blogging serves as a channel for a company and its customers to meet on common ground and to know each other more. A corporate blog conjures images of people who are passionate about their products or services and are eager to engage customers and prospects.

In corporate blogging, goals or missions are of prime importance. For a blog to yield value, it has to be created with specific goals in mind. Some of these goals may be to increase company credibility, enhance customer service and interaction, and give customers a peek of the behind the scenes of the corporate culture, showcase new products or services and more. The important thing is to be clear about the goals.

On the whole, notwithstanding the fact that corporate blogging provides a good marketing platform to companies. Companies that develop a good corporate blogging strategy are able to capture the goodwill of their community. Companies that connect with their audience and provide real value develop a loyal following. Companies that engage with their customers are able to harness the power of new ideas and feedback. Corporate blogs really are the new PR.

There are findings indicates that year 2008 is a breakthrough year for corporate blogging; with online content technologies rapidly overtaking traditional ones, corporate blogging is set to triple over in 2008; so by 2009, corporate blogging is expected to be as much of a standard tool in a marketer's kit as email is today.

=Know more about Corporate Blog=

Types of Corporate Blog

The internal blog, generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view. The informal nature of blogs may encourage employee participation, free discussion of issues, collective intelligence, direct communication between various layers of an organization and a sense of community. It is frequently used to Build and strengthen organizational culture, communicate company knowledge and provide teams with an effective collaboration tool.

External Blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services (or the end of old products), to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues. It is used to strengthen the brand, to build and strengthen relationships and to market or sell products and services.

15 Most Popular Corporate Blogs (Technorati ranked) – September 2008
#15. Delta – Authority: 109 (Down from #12)
#14. Kodak – Authority: 120 (Down from #13)
#13. Lenovo – Authority: 123 (New)
#12. Marriott – Authority: 135 (New)
#11. Mint – Authority: 142 (New)
#10. Flickr – Authority: 242 (Down from #3)
#9. General Motors – Authority: 282 (Up from #10)
#8. Southwest Airlines – Authority: 284 (New)
#7. LinkedIn – Authority: 551 (Up from #8)
#6. Yahoo! – Authority: 601 (Up from #11)
#5. Dell – Authority: 569 (Up from #6)
#4. Facebook – Authority: 779 (Same)
#3. Yahoo! Search – Authority: 1145 (Up from #5)
#2. Adobe – Authority: 1951 (Same)
#1. Google – Authority: 10245 (Same)

Read More:

Corporate blog
Corporate Blogging: Five Rules for Success in the Blogosophere
Corporate Blogging: Dos And Donts
Corporate Blogging: Benefits of Interactive Marketing
Corporate Blog Strategy

Credit Card Debt : Causes and Prevention

2009-07-05T17:32:00.026+08:00

Credit card is any card that may be used repeatedly to borrow money or buy products and services on credit. It is issued by banks, savings and loans, retail stores, and other businesses. The credit card debt has become a severe issue and it is the major cause of bankruptcies each year because many people have never realized of its consequences from financial and non financial perspectives.

Causes:
1. Less Income, More Expenses
This is occurs when the breadwinner of the household loses his job but monthly expenses are not cut down hence the income less than expenses and leads to a rise in credit card debt.

2. Poor Money Management
Poor Money Management is the main reason why so many people lead to rise in credit card debt. If don’t have a monthly spending plan and not keeping track of your monthly bills make you unaware of where your money is going. Furthermore if u buys unnecessary items, you might also be charging your necessary purchases on your credit card, forcing you to pay interest on these purchases every month.

3. Big medical expenses
If you need treatment now, but you do not have enough cash to pay the treatment so what do you do? You use your credit card because you do not have enough savings in the bank and almost all the doctors accept credit card payment.

Prevention:
1. Use it Like Cash, Not a Credit Card
You need to use your credit card like cash by paying your balance in full each month.

2. Avoid extra expenses
Sometimes it’s the little extra expenses that sneak up on you before you even know it.

3. Early Education
The best method for prevention is teaching our youngest generation all about money before they even qualify for a credit card. In addition, advertisers market more to younger and younger children, so it’s necessary to teach them very early about the lure of money and how to manage finances. The earlier children learn how to manage finances the less likely they will be to fall into credit card and debt problems as an adult.

References:

http://www.cardratings.com/howtoavoidcreditcarddebt.html

http://www.3debtconsolidation.com/top10-causes.html

Prepaid cash card for consumers

2009-06-28T21:12:00.012+08:00

What is prepaid cash card? Prepaid cash cards look like credit and debit cards and they offer the same ability to purchase products and services but with a crucial difference – you can only spend the balance that has been preloaded onto the card. This means there is no risk of running into debt as it has no credit or overdraft facility..

With a cash card, those with poor credit or too little money to meet banks’ minimum account balance requirements can participate in the retail transactions most people take for granted: ordering goods online, paying for items with a quick swipe, getting cash on demand from ATMs. Besides that, these cards may be beneficial for consumers who want to avoid the temptation of spending beyond their means, they are no panacea.

When using it, your purchases will be deducted from the balance stored on the card. The user can add more money to the card by paying cash at a retail store's point of sale, or in certain cases from their paycheck. In this sense, these cards have some of the features of a bank account. For those who lack the discipline or the know-how to manage their money, these cards can be a lifesaver in that they don’t let a user spend more than he or she has. It’s impossible to overdraw and accrue fines, or tap into a line of credit that could spiral into a nightmare of debt.

There are many types of Prepaid Card.

Payroll Card
Safer and faster than cash and checks, the Chase Payroll Card Program automates the payroll process by replacing paper-based payments with a reloadable debit card — reducing organizations' operational expenses, minimizing check-related fees and improving security.

Rebate Card
Prepaid rebate cards can help streamline payment processing while reducing paper, minimizing check-related fees and improving security. What's more, the Reward Card can be customized with a brand identity to build awareness, deepen customer loyalty and boost participation in future programs.

Employee Incentive Card
Employers can use the Chase Incentive Card program to increase employee satisfaction, drive revenue, influence consumer behavior, and motivate partners and sales teams. Our solution helps minimize costs and streamline the administration associated with incentive programs. Let Chase help build a memorable, exciting and effective employee rewards program while offering a company benefit that saves employees time and money.

University Card or College Card
With the Chase University Card or Chase College Card program, schools can disburse financial aid refunds, grants, work-study payments, athletic stipends, and payroll electronically to an entire college audience. Best of all, eliminate the hassle and expense of paper checks and manual check processing. Students, faculty and staff can use Chase Prepaid Cards to easily access their Chase accounts at automated teller machines (ATMs) and to make point-of-sale (POS) purchases.

Claim Payment Card
The Chase Claim Payment Card is a cost-effective and unique way for insurers to distribute recurring and single load benefit payments to their policy holders. Along with increasing the use of direct deposit, the Claim Payment Card program gives insurers improved management of funds distribution through increased reporting capability and eliminates the costs associated with the issuance and processing of paper checks.

Moible Payment System in Malaysia: Its Potential and Consumers' Adoption Strategy

2009-06-27T23:08:00.023+08:00

"Every day new technologies are created and improved, one of the latest technologies to emerge means that instead of carrying a wallet with credit cards in to pay for goods and services, you can use your mobile phone number instead..."

Mobile payment is a new payment method that a person can use a mobile phone or other devices to pay for goods and services such as:

•Music, ringtones, wallpaper and other digital goods

•Transportation fare and other services

•Books, magazines, tickets and other hard goods

Broader usage of mobile phones has encouraged the acceptance and growth of the mobile banking and mobile payment services in Malaysia. The services can be expanded to take advantage of the increasing number of mobile phone users.

In this regard, Bank Negara Malaysia has taken step to encourage the financial institutions to promote their delivery channel in mobile banking. Following the initiative, in facilitating mobile payments development, banking institutions are partnering with third party service providers to provide services to allow subscribers to purchase goods and services or make payments using their mobile phones.

However, existing services are focused mainly on bill payment and m-banking, growing slowly into m-wallet services, remittance and transfer offerings. In addition, there are many other payment methods, such as credit card, ATM card, in Malaysia and are very convenience. Thus, mobile payment system is not likely to replace other existing payment system in the near future.
Nevertheless, mobile payment system in Malaysia is still on its early stage. Future development may advance its system and make it more suitable for Malaysia. Hence, mobile payment system may become a common payment method in the forthcoming.

Following are some strategies used to increase consumer adoption toward mobile payment:

•Tells consumer about the advantages of using mobile payment system

Mobile payments provide consumers with everywhere purchase possibilities, timely access to financial assets and an alternative to cash payments. A person can, for example, pay for transportation tickets without the need to visit a ticketing center.

•Ease of use and convenience
The process of the transaction must convenience and not complex. This is found to be the most significant factor toward the consumers' adoption in mobile payment system.

•Cost of the transaction
The transaction costs of mobile payments should be low enough to make the total cost of the purchase competitive with alternative payment method.

•Payment system security
Company must set up some security measures to ensure the safety of the transaction as well as consumers' personal information. This will enhance the consumers' confidence in mobile payment system and thus boost the consumers' adoption of mobile payment.

Read more:

Electronic currency

2009-06-26T20:34:00.007+08:00

"The money screamed across the wires, its provenance fading in a maze of electronic transfers, which shifted it, hid it, broke it up into manageable wads which would be withdrawn and redeposited elsewhere, obliterating the trail."

Nest of Vipers, a banking thriller by Linda Davies

Electronic currency, also known as electronic cash or digital money, plays an important role in e-commerce. It is a form of electronic money that can be used to pay for goods and services on the internet or other electronic medium. Basically, electronic currency is intangible and only exists online. It is stored in media such as hard drives. We cannot see or touch it.

There are two forms of electronic currency:

1) Identified e-money

E-money that contains information identifies people who originally withdraw money from bank. The bank can trace the money and reduce financial crime.

2) Anonymous e-money

E-money that is an electronic equivalent or paper cash. It cannot be trace back and its owner can't be identified.

There are two further varieties of e-money:

1) Online e-money

Third party such as bank is required for the transaction. Similar to credit card clearing mechanisms at the point-of-sale in shops.

2) Offline e-money

Third party not required for the transaction. It is the most complex form of e-money.

Examples of electronic currency:

1)Paypal is an e-commerce business that allows users pay and get paid online. A Paypal account can be funded by credit card or bank account transfer. It performs payment processing for online vendors,auction sites, and other commercial users and charges fees. Fees charged are based on currency used, the payment option used, the country of the sender, the country of the recipient, the amount sent and the recipient's account type. PayPal has now become a global leader in online payment solutions with more than 153 million accounts around the world. It is available in 190 markets and 18 currencies. It also enables payments made across different locations, currencies, and languages.

2)Mondex, a smart card electronic cash system which was originally developed by National Westminister Bank in UK. It is a part of the MasterCard WorldWide suite of smart card products which enables cardholders to carry, store and spend cash value using a payment card. Mondex can be used in internet, mobile phone and interactive television. Value is stored as electronic information on a microchip and exchanged securely from the chip on the card to a chip in a terminal/card reader.

3) Chipknip is the electronic cash system used in Netherlands. Smart card included in ATM cards that issued by Dutch bank can be loaded with value via Chipknip loading stations next to ATMs. It can be used for payments at parking machines, public transport, office canteens, and for small retail transactions. Besides, no network access is required. PIN is not required to unlock the value stored on the card. The card is entered into the reader at the point of payment. Card holder can easily confirms the transfer of value.

References:

Electronic money (wikipedia)
E-money-What is it?

The Application of 3rd Party Ceritification Programme in Malaysia

2009-06-24T22:59:00.035+08:00

is the most popular application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia. It was established in 1999 as a licensed Certification Authority (CA) in Malaysia under the Digital Signature Act 1997 and operating within the Multimedia Super Corridor. It provides security solution and trusted services to help companies build a secure network and application infrastructure for their electronic transactions and communications over the network. Security is the basic concern of entering into the new Internet economy. The ever-changing paradigm of e-commerce needs a well-mandated safety infrastructure. The vision of Trustgate.com is clear: “To enable organizations to conduct their business securely over the Internet, as much as what they have been enjoying in the physical world.”

MSC Trustgate.com has a lot of products and services. For example:

MyTrust for Mobile Signature
With MyTrust, you can turns a SIM card into a Mobile Digital Identity for secure mobile banking and other financial services. Mobile digital signature provides non-repudiation on transactions under the Digital Signature Act, 1997. It runs on Wireless PKI platform and Mobile Operator infrastructure. PKI-enabled SIM cards are preloaded with MyTrust application and a digital certificate from a licensed Certification Authority. Users are able to digitally sign any transaction with ease and convenience via their mobile phone.

Managed Security Services
Security plays an important role for distributed, heterogeneous and mission critical applications. Valuable business resources that are accessible over the network need to be protected against misuse to ensure the business runs smoothly.

MyKad PKI (MyKey)
Malaysian government has put in place a smart National Identity Card (“MyKad”) for every citizen. MyKad with PKI capability allows its holder to conduct online transaction with government agencies and private sectors. MyKey, is the MyKad PKI solution that works with your physically MyKad, allowing you to authenticate yourself online and to digitally sign documents or transactions and is accepted by the Malaysian government.

Secure Transaction with Digital ID
To ensure your confidential information remains private in transit, you need to use Digital ID to sign & encrypt your transactions. Digital ID from MSC Trustgate.com is governed by the Digital Signature Act 1997. Without a legitimate Digital ID in your electronic transaction, your contract is not admissible in court in the case of dispute.

related link:

http://www.msctrustgate.com/

Phishing: Examples & Its Prevention

2009-06-21T17:09:00.037+08:00

What is "Phishing"?

Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.

How do a Phishing email/site look like?
The following are some of the examples of Phishing emails and websites:

• The email is convincingly good-looking. The sender and the true destination of the link are not plainly visible, which adds to the effect

• The email looks quite convincing, with the exception of the SPAM line at the end

• Poor formatting of this message makes it appear very phishy, but the link opens a convincing site

•An example of phishing site

Here are some recommendation about how to minimize the risk of susceptible to Phishing:

•If you receive an unexpected e-mail saying your account will be shut down unless you confirm your billing information, do not reply or click any links in the e-mail body.

•Before submitting financial information through a Web site, look for the "lock" icon on the browser's status bar. It means your information is secure during transmission.

•If you are uncertain about the information, contact the company through an address or telephone number you know to be genuine.

•If you unknowingly supplied personal or financial information, contact your bank and credit card company immediately.

•Be careful about sharing personal information or letting it circulate freely.

•Be particularly careful about your SIN.

•Using technologies that enhance your security and privacy when you use the Internet, such as digital signatures, data encryption

•Pay attention to your billing cycle. If credit card or utility bills fail to arrive, contact the companies to ensure that they have not been illicitly redirected.

•Choose difficult passwords and change them often.

•Key in personal identification numbers privately when you use direct purchase terminals, bank machines, or telephones.

So long as the necessary steps have taken, phishing will not be easy to reach you.

Read more:

Online Security Threat

2009-06-20T22:39:00.003+08:00

When a computer connects to a network and begins communicating with others, it is taking a risk. Internet security involves the protection of a computer's internet account and files from intrusion of an unknown user. Basic security measures involve protection by well selected passwords, change of file permissions and back up of computer's data.

Nowadays, threats are becoming more and more sophisticated as recipients of threats are better educated on what to look for. Users are more cautious and this has lead to a rise in more cunning ways to harvest personal information without users’ apparent involvement. Therefore, our data has become unsafe on the internet so it makes the internet users full of fear when surfing the net.

These are the threats that affect the online security:

Computer Virus
A 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. When a virus infects your computer it can wipe out data, significantly affect computer operation, and use your Internet connection to spread. For example, Computer worm Conficker infects anywhere from 9 to 15 million Microsoft server systems running everything from Windows 2000 to the Windows 7 Beta in November 2008. The French Navy, UK Ministry of Defence (including Royal Navy warships and submarines), Sheffield Hospital network, German Bundeswehr and Norwegian Police were all affected.

Hacking
Computer hacking involves some degree of violation of the privacy of others, or damage to computer-based property such as files, web pages or software. The impact of computer hacking varies from being invasive and annoying to illegal. In January 2008, Project Chanology Anon attacks Scientology website servers around the world and private documents are stolen from Scientology computers and distributed over the Internet.

Hijacking
Online, hijacking refers to the act of obtaining an individual’s personal account information and using it for malicious purposes. An example would be a fraudster getting a hold on someone’s personal credit card information and going on a spending spree. There are many types of hijacking in internet like DNS hijacking, domain hijacking, IP hijacking and page hijacking.

Identify 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 – it can also include credit card and mail fraud. In the online world, electronic commerce information can be intercepted as a result of vulnerabilities in computer security. Besides that, identity theft can also be undertaken on a large scale, as in the case of a company or even a city.

Spyware
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. Spyware has come to refer more generally to software that threatens the computer's operation and information for the benefit of a third party.
There are many examples of spyware, which are CoolWeb search, Zango, Zlob Trojan and Movieland. Zlub Trojan downloads itself to a computer via an ActiveX codec and reports information back to Control Server.

Phishing
Phishing is a form of identity theft whereby scammers send an e-mail that appears to come from a legitimate company with whom the recipient conducts business (such as a bank or payment processing service). Recipients of such e-mails who click through may then unwittingly submit their personal information to the fraudulent site.

At year 2009, there are some top online security threats that everyone can have a look.
Top Online Security Threats for 2009

Methods to safeguard personal information

2009-06-20T21:44:00.016+08:00

Most of people use online banking services or credit card when they do online shopping. This is easy and convenient but our personal information may be in risk. We always hear that people lost their personal information such as credit card details because of spams or virus attack. That's why it is very important for us to know how to safeguard our personal information and data while enjoying benefits of e-commerce.

The following methods can help you to protect your information:

1) Anti-virus software

Anti-virus software can help to prevent and reduce risk of computer viruses that can compromise your security. Always make sure that you have the latest version of anti-virus software as malwares and virus keep changing to avoid being detect. Keep software updated can increase chance to detect malware or spam. Most popular software are Norton, Kaspersky and Bitdefender. It is also possible to obtain a free anti-virus protection. You may look for them in Google with a search for 'free anti-virus'.

2) Keep operating system updated

From time to time, vulnerabilities are discovered in programs running on your computer. Malware and hackers always take advantage of flaws of system software to infiltrate and install onto system. To overcome this weaknesses, publishers will release a 'patch'. It is important to keep operating system updated to safeguard your data. Microsoft windows user can update operating system in the website.

3) Safe and updated web browser

Web browser always the target of hacker and malware authors. It is because its flaws would allow access to user's computer. Update your web browser or switch to another safer browser can help to secure your computer. Well known web browser are Internet explorer and Firefox.

4) Use secured websites

Always make sure that web page you visits offers encryption of your personal data. You can check the web page url. Normally, the web page addresses are begin with the letters "http". However, if there is secure protection, the address displayed should begin with "https" - note the "s" at the end. You may also check for the lock icon. The lock symbol at the corner of web page means it use encryption.

Microsoft Internet Explorer displays the lock icon in the lower right corner of the window.

Mozilla Firefox displays the lock icon in the lower left corner.

5) Download original software

Do not download software program from unknown sources. It may contain hidden programs or viruses that may compromise your computer. To be safe, you have to search for the computer who made the software and download from their website. It is safer and you can get the latest updates of the software.

References:

Basic online security guide
Online security

History & Evolution of E-commerce

2009-06-17T11:22:00.027+08:00

Early development
The meaning of electronic commerce has changed over the last 30 years.

Original
Electronic commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, use technology. For example: Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funs Transfers (EFT)

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) refers to the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means. It is used to transfer electronic documents from one computer system to another from one trading partner to another trading partner. It is more than mere E-mail.

Electronic Funs Transfers (EFT) is any transfer of funds, other than a transaction originated by a paper instrument, that is initiated through an electronic terminal, telephone, or computer or magnetic tape and that orders or authorizes a financial institution to debit or credit an account.

Late 1970s
Allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. For example: acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM).

A credit card is part of a system of payments named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. It is a card entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services.

Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) an unattended electronic machine in a public place, connected to a data system and related equipment and activated by a bank customer to obtain cash withdrawals and other banking services.

1980s

Telephone banking also forms of electronic commerce

Telephone banking is a service provided by a financial institution which allows its customers to perform transactions over the telephone.

1990s onwards

Additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an industry term for the broad set of activities that helps a business manage the important parts of its business.

Data mining is the process of extracting hidden patterns from data. As more data is gathered, with the amount of data doubling every three years, data mining is becoming an increasingly important tool to transform this data into information.

Data warehouse is a repository of an organization's electronically stored data. Data warehouses are designed to facilitate reporting and analysis

Event

1984
EDI, or electronic data interchange, was standardized through ASC X12. This guaranteed that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another reliably.

1992
Compuserve offers online retail products to its customers. This gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer.

1994
Netscape arrived. Providing users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer.

1995
Two of the biggest names in e-commerce are launched: Amazon.com and eBay.com.

1998
DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, provides fast, always-on Internet service to subscribers across California. This prompts people to spend more time, and money, online.

1999
Retail spending over the Internet reaches $20 billion, according to Business.com.

2000
The U.S government extended the moratorium on Internet taxes until at least 2005.

Time line

1990
Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a NeXT computer

1994
Netscape released the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla. Pizza Hut offered pizza ordering on its Web page. The first online bank opened. Attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online. Adult materials were also commercially available,
as were cars and bikes. Netscape 1.0 in late 1994 introduced SSL encryption that made transactions secure.

1995
Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com and the first commercial 24 hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio started broadcasting. Dell and Cisco began to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions. eBay was founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.

1998
Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.

1999
Business.com was sold for US $7.5 million, which was purchased in 1997 for US $150,000. The peer-to-peer filesharing software Napster was launched.

2000
The dot-com bust.

2003
Amazon.com had its first year with a full year of profit.

2007
Business.com acquired by R.H.Donnelley for $345 million

2008
US eCommerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $204 billion, an increase of 17 percent over 2007

Webvan - The failure example of E-Commerce

2009-06-15T23:21:00.017+08:00

Webvan (1999-2001)

Webvan was an online grocery business that was started in 1999 by Louis Borders, founding partner of Borders Books, and went bankrupt in 2001. Webvan is a business-to-consumer based e-commerce company. At the time, Webvan offered customers to order groceries and fresh food, such as meat, produce and milk, over the Internet and deliver to them within the same day.

What Went Wrong?
The following are some reasons which contribute to the failure of Webvan:

• An inappropriate business model
Webvan has incorrectly believed that it was in the technology business, instead of the grocery business.

• Lack of retail food experience from the management team
Webvan was managed by officers and director who had no retail food experience. Webvan founder Louis Borders was an expert in selling books, however, books do not expire.

• Lack of understanding of the sociology & psychology of retailing food
Webvan’s management did not grasp how consumers shop for food. People go to supermarkets to look at and even feel the merchandise. Customers like to speak to the grocer, the butcher or the wine department manager, for example. There must be a special reason for people to forego supermarket shopping.

• Lack of demographic understanding
Webvan located major warehouses in Atlanta and Los Angeles, where people are used to driving and would rather drive to a store than wait for delivery. . Webvan’s problems were exacerbated in California’s Orange and San Diego counties, both of which have large Latin American and Asian populations. These customers were already being served by local grocers who catered to these ethnic communities much more effectively than Webvan could.

• The high cost of running an online grocery business
In order to make its business to be successful, Webvan spent a lof of money to build "high-tech" warehouse as well as to purchase the "lastest technology" to run its business, however, these did not contribute to the factors of success but worsened the financial situation of Webvan.

The failure of Webvan does not mean the online retail industry is not workable. However, it mean that reasonable study should be taken before entering any industry. Thus, it is a good lesson to remind us not to repeat the mistakes that Webvan has done.

Read more:

Revenue model of Google, Amazon.com and eBay

2009-06-14T23:51:00.018+08:00

The online revenue Model means different techniques for generation income from an internet business. I will discuss about what is the revenue model of Google, Amazon.com and eBay and do some comparison on them.

In the most recently results, the Google generates 99% of the income from ads. There are two sources of advertising, which are Google Adsense and Google Adwords. Adsense is an advertisement application run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Thousands of website owners will take advantage of the Google Adsense program to deliver ads, and they are required to pay Google an affiliate fee each time a user clicks on one of their ads displayed on Google Network members’ web sites.

Besides that, the other source that Google generate income is the Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a pay per click advertising program of Google designed to allow the advertisers to present advertisements to people at the instant the people are looking for information related to what the advertiser has to offer. When a user searches Google's search engine, ads for relevant words are shown as "sponsored link" on the right side of the screen, and sometimes above the main search results. AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads. Advertisers will need to pay Google the fees through either a cost-per-click or cost-per-view scheme.

Amazon.com is an online bookstore in the early stage but soon it diversified into different product line like VHS, DVD, music CDs and mp3, computer, software, toys and so on. Therefore, the Amazon.com generates its revenue by sales of goods, merchandise information and service provided in the website.

However, according to the information in Amazon.com discussion forum, Amazon derives about 40% of its sales from affiliates whom they call Associates and third party sellers who list and sell products on the Amazon websites. In worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs. There are a new affiliate product, aStore, allows Associates to embed a subset of Amazon products within, or linked to from, another website. Consistent with the data, there are 1.3 million sellers sold products through Amazon's World Wide Web sites in 2007. Therefore it shown that Selling on Amazon has become more popular as Amazon expanded into a variety of categories beyond media and built a variety of features to support volume selling.

Other than that, Amazon.com also incorporated a number of products and services into its shopping model, like Kindle which launched in November 2007. These products can attract people to continue buying in Amazon.

eBay is an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety goods and services worldwide and it also owns Paypal and skype. EBay generates revenue from a number of fees. there are fees to list a product (Insertion Fee) and fees when the product sells (Final Value Fee), plus several optional adornment fees, all based on various factors and scales. The final value fee is the commission that charged to the seller at the end of the auction.

Moreover, there is a portion of eBay’s revenue gain from direct advertising on the site and also the acquisition of PayPal, which bring additional transaction based fee for revenue. EBay also runs an affiliate program under the name eBay Partner Network and the eBay affiliate marketers Fees are paid a percentage of the eBay seller's transaction fees. The payout is 50% to 75% of the fees paid for an item purchased.

About their revenue in year 2008, the Google gain the most which is US $21.796Bil, Amazon.com is the second which is US $19.166bil and finally is the eBay which is US $8.46bil. Three of them also obtain the affiliate fees, but Google is the best to earn the income from it. Amazon.com will more focus on sales and the transaction fees and together with Ebay also more on the transaction fees.

More information, you can visit their website.

Google---Amazon.com---eBay

Dell -- A successful e-commerce example

2009-06-13T13:58:00.010+08:00

Dell, one of the most successful e-commerce company, offers personal computers and computer-related products online. The company was founded by Michael Dell in 1985. Currently, Dell develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer-related products. It also become one of the top five computers makers in the world, behind Hewlett-Packard in 2008. Dell achieved $60 billion sales online a year and employs over 63,000 people.

Dell using direct online marketing as its major e-commerce activity. They sells to individuals, small businesses, medium and large businesses, government, education and health-care organizations. The company's strategy selling online with no retails shops and middleman enable them to sell their product cheaper. By applying the direct sales model, Dell able to maintain a negative cash conversion cycle. In other words, Dell receives payment for the products before pays for materials.

Customers can easily buy personal computers through Dell's website. By entering Dell's website, customers can choose category such as home or business. Customers can narrow their selection by product category, screen size, laptop weight and graphics capability. It makes customers to find their needs easily. Hot deals also offer information about some discounted products to customers. After made decision, customers can make payment by credit card. Products will be delivered to customers in 5-8 working days.

Causes that bring Dell success:
1) Customers can buy personal computers online without go to the store. Computers will be delivered to their house. It save their time and energy.

2) Customers can choose computer's components like hard drive size, processor speed and screen size based on their budgets and needs.

3) Direct contact with customers give them feedback such as what customers ordering and how their site working.

4) Technical supports such as business-hours telephone support and next business-day on-site support increase customer's confidence towards Dell.

In conclusion, since Dell has chosen to sell their products online, they have to put more effort in their customer service. Beside, product quality also should be improved to serve customers' demands. In my opinion, purchasing personal computers online is a trend now. Dell will become stronger in the future with its successful online marketing strategy.

For more information, Please refers to Dell's website.

References:

Dell (wikipedia)
Case study: Dell

Cool Lam

2009-06-10T11:32:00.005+08:00

Hi, everyone...
You all can call me Hon Fee but i prefer you call me "Cool".
Sometime my friends asked me why am i call Cool?
Call me "Hot" better because normally i talk very much or non-stop to talk.
Before i study university, i didn't have nick name but my friend told me that study university must have nick name better so i choose Cool.

Why? Nowadays, write blog is very common of the world so i think i also need to do so.
Actually i more prefer write chinese because i think chinese can give me more feeling but try to write English maybe also have some fun. Anyway just do my best to write this blog.

Where? I from ipoh but study in KL for study. If anyone want go to ipoh for holiday but dont know where can go, you can ask me.

How old ? I am 21 years old but also can consider 20 years old because my birthday on 30 Nov. Now you all know my birthday please remember congratulate me.

My hobbies? i like to play basketball very much so normally I am playing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in balakong there, if anyone interest that you can call me.

Wedsites? Normally i just visit some websites for example, hotmail, friendster, facebook, narutocn.net and google.

Why? Hotmail can see some funny message or somebody need send some file to me so can use that to do so. Friendster can give some comment to other people although you dont know her or his and also can see the people real face but some people not to so. Facebook like friendster but the wedsite has more function compare with friendster for example facebook can tag people that can let us know anyone inside the picture but frienster dont have. Other, facebook can link to some website to play game and so on. Narutocn.net can see the caricature in that website. In there have three famous caricature (naruto, bleach and one-piece) so i like that very much.
Google can seek anything u want, for example if u want go to eat but dont know where can eat so u can seek that.

Activity? before that i write blog in hotmail there for my personal feeling. Next, chat in msn because more faster and not need pay any fees. Also online for booking ticket and seek information .

Haha... have anything want ask me also can leave comment. Happy always my friend.^^

My Intro, Liew Ying Xin

2009-06-08T20:30:00.010+08:00

Hello, I am Liew Ying Xin.
I live in KL, so my home is not very far from here, but I still stay here because of more convenience for me.
Let’s talk about my hobbies. I like reading, but usually the books are novels and those books that I feel interested. When there are book fair in KL, I definitely will go to visit, although not usually will buy any books. Actually I like to read food recipe because I really have great interest on baking cakes and cookies, but I haven’t start to make one yet, too sad on that. I like Japanese drama and animation very much too.

Besides that, I also like to surf the web, this is the work that I always do . I will visit those websites that I feel interested. The top 5 websites that I visit the most are:
1- My blog. I have two blogs, but actually I will post more in one of them only, another will just post it when I have topic to write. This is the website that I visit the most frequent because sometimes I have something to post up or just see whether there are any comments leave by somebody and I can reply it. Others than that, I may be adding some new widget and some beautiful things on my blog.
2- Facebook. Nowadays, the facebook has already very famous and broadly used by everyone. I visit to the websites is to know the latest news about my friends or play some application that provided in the facebook.
3- Gmail. I will sometimes check my email box whether there have any mail sent to me. But usually those mails are spoilers, especially in my hotmail, so I have already very lazy to check my hotmail.
4- Google. This websites I always use because can search many things that I want. I use it for searching the research stuffs, assignment things and others that I want to know.
5- Cari Forum. This is a Chinese forum that I will go visiting. I can get some information about some topic and can discuss it with some forumers.

The internet activities that I do are surf the web, manage my blog, download some video and songs, chat in MSN and discuss something in the forum. I really like to do blogging because it can let people know what you recent doing and share interest with others. This E-Commerce blog actually built for our school assignment and also can make us know more about this topic. This is because E-Commerce has become very common in our life.

Yap Chew Soon here~

2009-06-08T20:08:00.011+08:00

My name is Yap Chew Soon, one of the members who managing this blog- Ecommerce Diary. I am a normal girl, like others, love shopping, watching movie, hang out with friends and reading. Ah, forgot to include one activity that I must do everyday, that is- internet activities!!!

I love internet. It allows me to receive the latest news and search for information. Google is the search engine I use the most. A lot of match or related website came out by entering keyword. It is very convenient and easy to use. Beside, Facebook is one of my favourite website. I can keep in touch with my friends and playing available application. Pet society and restaurant city are popular application in facebook and I enjoy playing them. MSN messenger is a tool which allow me chat with my friends easily. I always check my Hotmail. My inbox full of interesting and meaningful forward message from my friends! There is a lot of important email too such as job offer and file. Cari forum is one of the website I always visit. I can know what popular topic people are discussing now. Youtube is a website which have many uploaded videos clips. I can easily looking for my favourite video clips and movie trailer.

E-commerce is a service very new to me. Since I do not own a credit card, I can't buy goods from most of the website. However, there are some seller and website accept bank transfer. I bought goods from a website successfully last year. This is my very first time to use e-commerce to buy my goods. What have I bought? That's my secret. ^_^

That's all my introduction. I will update our blog as much as I can. Please visits our blog and leave some lovely comments!! See you!!

Tan Boon Shein

2009-06-08T13:00:00.018+08:00

Harlo, I'm Tan Boon Shein. Comes from Johor, Batu Paht. Just like all others, I enjoy watcing movie, listening music, playing computer game, hanging out with friends and all that.

There're some websites where I visit the most:

Google That's where I "Google" things

YouTube It's a space where you can watch many cool clips and I often watch drama from there.

theStar Online It's a site where it provides news online and it keeps me up to date with the world.

CHS forum It's a forum of my secondary school and it helps me to know about how's my secondary school.

Yahoo Shopping It's an Taiwan online shopping mall orginized by Yahoo and that's where I get information about news stuff. You may ask your friend to buy things for you from there and mail it to you if you've friends in Taiwan.

There're some Internet activities where I do the most, such as, watching YouTube, reading online news, checking Email, chatting with friends by using MSN, and surft nets.

That's all about me. Thank you for your visiting.

Welcome to our blog~

2009-06-06T22:31:00.004+08:00

Welcome~
We are from BAC tutorial group 1.
This is our group's ecommerce blog. We use 'E-commerce Diary' as our blog name, the name we really use some time to decide it out. At last, we choose it because it much like a diary about ecommerce and we like this name.
This blog will contain somethings about E-commerce and it can let people to know more and detail about this topic. I also think that it may be can benefit everyone in the future.

Our team is formed by four members, there are two boys and two girls, such a balance team.
We are Tan Boon Shein, Liew Ying Xin, Yap Chew Soon and Lam Hon Fee.
Later we will post up our introduction, and then you all will know about us.
Hope our blog can manage successfully.
Thank you for visiting.