Friday, July 4, 2008

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies


The blogging activities had become very popular since the past few years. The blogging activities had developed and it is not only for personal usage anymore. Business organizations had also implemented blog as their business tool which is called corporate blog. For example, Google had developed a corporate blog in year 2004. It shares all information about Google and people can actually leave comment for them.


Corporate blog can be very useful for an organization. It can be divided to two types which are internal blog and external blog. An internal blog is normally accessed through the corporation's Intranet. It helps the employees communicate with each others and share their experiences. It also helps the communication between different layers of management. The employees of an organization can exchange their opinion and discuss their expertise which will help in their daily work.

An external blog is a blog that can be view by public. Public can leave their comment in the blog. It is useful for organizations to get the direct feedback from the customers. By using the external corporate blog, companies can communicate with clients, employees, the media, prospective employees or customers. Corporate organizations can even conduct their public relations activities through blogging by posting press releases and updates about new company products and services on the blog. The corporate blog become a platform for the most direct communication between the corporate organizations with outsiders. It will help in building better relationship with customers. Blogging is less formal and the customers will fell more comfortable to communicate with the organizations.

Corporate blog had its disadvantage as well. Because of the blog is not flittered and can be view by public as soon as it is post, many companies might face situation such as people give negative review of a product that will lead to bad publicity. Other than that, corporate blog might lead to legal pitfalls as well. There are cases where a company has been held responsible for comments made by some employees that adversely affected the others.

Corporate blog is very helpful for communications between organizations and public but it need a lot of efforts to keep a corporate blog updated and avoid the disadvantages that it will bring.

References:
  1. http://www.morebusiness.com/running_your_business/businessbits/Corporate-Blogging-Secrets.brc

Posted by PanDa at 10:39 PM 2 comments  

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Thursday, July 3, 2008

Review a local e-commerce site: Pbebank.com

Pbebank.com is the official website of Public Bank Berhad. It is a web site that provides online financial services comprising of online banking, online bill payments, as well as informational services to Public Bank customers. Almost every Utar student is familiar with pbebank.com. The collaboration between Utar and Public Bank has created great exposure to students about e-banking. Utar students nowadays are required to use online transfer payment to pay the student bills. Alternatively, students will have to buy bank draft to settle the payment if the students choose not to make payment via e-banking.

The advantages of accessing pbebank.com to make payment will be obvious as the service charged of bank draft used is much higher than e-banking’s. Besides that, the procedures of obtaining bank draft is time consuming and costly. However, with the usage of pbebank.com, users can carry out various banking financial activities with just a few ‘click’!

With just few clicks, registered users can perform following activities via pbebank.com anytime, at anywhere using internet connection:
· View account balances and history at anytime
· Fund transfer
· Credit card / Debit card payment
· Loan / Financing payment
· Bill payment
· Other payments such as income tax payment, Lembaga Tabung Haji and Zakat payment
· Examination of payment history
· Profile maintenance

Illustration above highlights the section where the users can perform e-banking activities after logging in to pbebank.com.

Despite of those attractive and beneficial functions provided, people may still have doubts on the vulnerability of online data and security. The increasing occurrence of data leak has raised public’s concerns toward the reliability and safety of performing transactions online. In this case, Public Bank has employed the highest standards of Internet security, which is 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, to ensure users’ financial information and transactions are completely preserved. With the use of 128-bit SSL, confidentiality and data integrity are guaranteed. Besides that, it prevents unauthorized alterations to the information transmitted as well.

Feel interested already? Subscribe to public bank online financial services now! This fast and convenient is absolutely free. No access or annual fee is levied on customers! Enjoy this comfortable and secured service by subscribing to online financial services, so that you can perform desired banking activities anytime, anywhere using an internet connection.


References:
http://www.pbebank.com/en/en_content/faq/pb_faq2.html

Posted by mapleleaf at 5:33 PM 1 comments  

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E-Government in Malaysia

The Electronic Government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and business. Besides that, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement. The implementation of electronic government started since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1996 by the Malaysian government.

The current applications of e-government in Malaysia such as e-Filling, Renewing Road Tax and Driving License Online, KWSP’s i-Akaun and E-Perolehan. Nowadays, we can renew road tax and motor insurance policy at http://www.myeg.com.my/. It also provides a list of about 100 insurances companies for citizen to choose it. In addition, we also can renew driving licenses and pay or check traffic summonses through the online at http://www.jpj.gov.my/.

However, many citizens in Malaysia do not use e-government because they are lack of computer knowledge. Besides that, the languages available of e-government applications are more on English and Malay. Some Chinese or Indian consumers are not proficient in those languages, so they are rarely using the e-government applications.

In order to encourage citizens to use e-government, the government needs marketing expertise to better promote awareness, encouragement and dissemination of information on the benefits that can be obtained by using e-government. In addition, the government can implement more languages in e-government to those consumers who are not proficient in English and Malay.

Posted by QQ at 8:45 AM 1 comments  

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Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

What is E-Auction?
Auctions that conducted online, offering services that enable sellers to post their goods for sale and allow buyers to bid on those items

Prevention
Escrow services
An independent third party holds a bidder’s payment in trust until the buyer receives and accepts the auction item from the seller.

User id verification
The process of identifying a person based on the information that provide by others user, they using a credit reporting program that helps e-auction to gather the useful information such as ID number, date of birth and etc.

Authentication services
It is a way to determining whether the auction item is fake or not, it normally perform by the trained and experienced expertise.

Feedback Forum
Most e-auction sites provide a feedback and rating feature that enables auction community members to monitor each other. This feature enables users to rank sellers or bidders and add short comments about sellers, bidders, and transactions.

Grading services
Grading is a way of determining the physical condition of an item, such as “poor quality” or “mint condition.”

Nonpayment punishment
E-auction sites implemented a policy against those who do not honor their winning bids. To help protect sellers, first-time nonpayment results in a friendly warning. A sterner warning is issued for a second-time offense, a 30-day suspension for a third offense, and indefinite suspension for a fourth offense.

Appraisal
Appraisers help buyer and seller to appraise the items by comparing the offer value by the seller with the market price.

Verification
Confirm the identity of an item through verification. For example, some collectors have their item “DNA tagged” for identification purposes. This provides a way of tracking an item if it changes ownership in the future.

Posted by DownBang at 7:14 AM 0 comments  

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Saturday, June 28, 2008

The application of prepaid cash card for consumers.

Prepaid cash cards is a convenient and affordable solution for everyone now, it is just like the credit and debit card which gives consumers the ability to purchase products and services with no carry any cash with them. But there is some crucial different between them, consumers can only spend the balance before they have reloaded the card and it also known as pre-funded “stored-value” cards, which means prepaid cash card is not borrowing money from bank or other financial institution.

Generally, prepaid cash card gives an ideal on control and budget on spending and it do not need any requirements to register it. In contracts, using credit card will encounter a risk of getting into debt trap. Prepaid cash card is now steadily gaining in popularity because they eliminate the interest charges and it also giving a great alternative choice to solve the credit issue.

The Touch ’n Go (TNG) card is one of the common prepaid cash card that use in Malaysia on highway toll expressway, consumers no longer need to pay the toll fees by coin so it will speed up the queuing time. Furthermore, the Touch ’n Go even offer the Smart TAG card where the consumer’s vehicle can totally skip the queuing time by just install a device with plug in the Touch ’n Go card. Beside that, it have wider usage such as payment in petrol station, public transports, selected parking and theme park.


Foreign country example:
SmartRider, it can be use in Australia for the payment of transportation.

Octopus card, it can be use in Hong Kong for payment at supermarket, public transport, car park fees and etc.

EasyCard, it can be use in Taiwan for the payment of subway and boat ticket.

Posted by DownBang at 2:37 AM 1 comments  

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Friday, June 27, 2008

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies

Mobile payment system has been widely introduced in developing country years ago. However, it has only been popular recently in Malaysia. The lack of advertisements and less involvement by required authorities are the critical reasons for the late introduction of mobile payment system in Malaysia.

Mobile payment system is a system that involves collection of money from a consumer through a mobile device such as his/her mobile phone, Smart Phone, PDA, or other similar devices. Mobile money plays an important role in mobile payment system.

Mobile money is an innovative mobile payment system that gives you the convenience of cash-free and card-free shopping as well as making remote payments. In this case, mobile device acts like a wallet. However, it does not hold your cash. It holds the value that you have in your registered savings, current or credit card account with participating banks.


Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd is one of the biggest mobile payment service providers in Malaysia. Mr. Lee Eng Sia sees the opportunity and potential of mobile money and thus initiated the idea of mobile payment system introduced in Malaysia. The company objective is to provide Merchants and consumers with a convenient and secure Mobile Payment and Mobile Commerce platform.

In accordance with the system designed by Mobile Money, a registered consumer is required to send a SMS which indicates his/her registered 6-digit security pin to merchant’s mobile phone numbers or bank accounts to make payments for goods and services purchased anytime, anywhere. In the same time, it allows user to receive money from anyone, from anywhere, at anytime. It also provides a list of miss call numbers for you to check your account, to get SMS instructions to purchase products and to top up your Money Mobile wallet, or to check your balances and last transactions. Illustration below shows how the mobile transaction works.


Although mobile payment system is not a fresh term anymore, however it still has huge potentials in Malaysia. The introduction of mobile money has benefited both participating merchants and consumers. Mobile money enables involved merchants to take online order without the requirement for online shoppers to disclose their credit card information. In the same time, it gives online merchants another option in the selection of payment gateway to be implemented. Furthermore, the cost-effectiveness of mobile money has make mobile money becomes favorable to merchants. In the same time, the beneficial functions provided by mobile money such as reliability and convenience will soon impose a significant growth in e-commerce industry in Malaysia. Thus, it will attract more merchants to adopt online selling as an extra sales channel, enhancing the use of mobile money.

On the other hand, consumers who use mobile money service are able to enjoy the convenience to pay anyone, including to any bank accounts from anywhere, at anytime. You can pay various bills and your loan repayments at home. The convenience, enhanced security and guaranteed safety promised add in more value into mobile payment system. With mobile money, consumer can start to buy and save from participating mobile commerce platform. In this case, cost saving and convenience have been important elements in attracting consumers to involve in mobile payment system. In addition, the functions provided by mobile money are additional add-in value in attracting consumer in using mobile money. It can function like a credit card if a consumer applies for a “Pay by Mobile Phone” credit card account. Therefore, the consumer will be billed by the bank by month’s end. Alternatively, it can function as a Debit Card if the consumer applies for savings or current account. The amounted consumed will be deducted directly from the account upon successful transaction.

In conclusion, mobile payment system may seem to be attractive and beneficial based on above discussion. However, mobile payment system in Malaysia is not well established. Consequently, merchants’ involvements, as well as consumers’ supports are greatly appreciated and required to popularize mobile payment system.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_payment
http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_overview.asp
http://mobile-money.com/

Posted by mapleleaf at 5:32 PM 1 comments  

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Electronic Currency

Electronic currency also knows as electronic money, electronic cash, electronic currency or digital currency. Electronic currency refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Normally, it involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. The examples of electronic currency are the Electronic Funds Transfer and the direct deposit. Electronic currency can provide many benefits such as convenience increased efficiency of transactions and lower transaction fees.

Peppercoin is a cryptographic system for processing micropayments. Micropayments are means for transferring very small amounts of money, in situations where collecting such small amounts if money with usual payments systems is impractical or very expensive, in term of the amount of money being collected. The peppercoin system was developed by Silvio Micali and Ron Rivest and first presented at the RSA Conference in 2002.Peppercoin Inc. was a company that offers services based on the perception method. The “Peppercoin” method uses universal aggregation, which we sometimes times also call cryptographic selection. The Peppercoin system ensures that consumers are never billed for more than he has spent.

Peppercoin’s micropayment system is the first that allows online merchants, banks and other companies build market adoption quickly through a consumer-friendly, pay-as-you-go approach that eliminate prepayments. Peppercoin integrates easily with existing business models and systems to accelerate revenues and increase profits while dramatically lowering transaction and customer services cost. Peppercoin collect 5-9% of transaction cost from the merchant. In 2007, Peppercoin was bought by Chockstone for an undisclosed amount.

Posted by QQ at 12:59 AM 0 comments  

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Nowadays, credit cards had become major spending tools in our community. There are more people applying for credit cards instead of carrying cash in wallets or purses. We cannot deny that credit cards had brought a lot of conveniences to us, but, on the other hand, it also brought some disadvantages. One of the major issues that rose recently is credit card debts. It is a situation where many card holders owed too many debts by using credit cards and it leads to bankruptcy.

One of the common reasons that cause the credit card debts would be did not manage the finance well. Most of the card holder did not prepare budgets that show them the amount that they had spent by using credit cards. It is because they were not using cash. It is difficult for them to realize whether they were over budget by using credit cards. Another common cause that happens always would be too much credit cards. There are too many promotions nowadays. Many people were attracted by the promotions and started to apply cards one by one. At the end, they will overspend because they need to spend more to get the benefits from the cards’ promotions. Besides that, card holders with many cards will start to pay a card’s debt with another card. Things go round and round and at the end, the cards holder will start to realize that it is a bad idea. They will never finish paying debts.

Therefore, card holders need to prevent themselves from being credit card debtors. What they need to do is simple. First, create a budget. A good budget will helps card holders stay out of debts. They can clearly know how much they can spend and how much had they spent in a period. Secondly, pay off the balance on the credit card with the highest interest rate first. Many card holders did not notice this important point and leads to pay more interest. Card holders should pay the credits with the higher interest first to avoid the debts from increasing too much.

As a conclusion, the simplest way to avoid from being credit card debtors is by using cash instead of credit cards. One or two credit cards for emergency use are enough for a person. We must use credit card wisely to get out from debts.

References:

Posted by PanDa at 9:37 AM 1 comments  

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

The threat of online security: How safe is our data?

Nowadays, people rely on computers to create, store and manage critical information. Consequently, it is important for users to aware that computer security plays a major role in protecting their data from loss, damage, and misuse. Similarly, online security has been online trader’s main concern in protecting their websites from potential threats, such as phishing, security hacking, information theft, virus, worms and etc.

However, the increasingly developed technologies sarcastically increase the risk every computer user faced. Everyone who owns a computer with internet connection is able to equip themselves with ‘hacking’ knowledge by making some research online. Internet provides the opportunities for users to share the knowledge without filtering the content. Therefore, everyone can learn skills that may jeopardize online security via internet and therefore increase the online security risk.

Nowadays, computer users are facing the threats of cybercrime, phishing, internet and network attacks such as computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses and back doors.

Cybercrime is defined as online or internet-based illegal acts. Hackers, crackers and corporate spies who have advanced computer and network skills access computers and networks illegally with the intent of destroying data, stealing proprietary data and information.

Phishing is a scam in which a perpetrator sends an official looking e-mail that attempts to obtain your personal information and financial information. For example, some phishing e-mail messages ask you to reply with your information, or a pop up window that looks like a website, that collects the information. The damages caused by phishing can be crucial. The following case illustrates potential threat caused by phishing.

For example, in 21 June 2007, a spear phishing incident at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) stole sensitive U.S. defense information, leading to significant changes in identity and message-source verification at OSD. This incident has cost administrative disruptions and personal inconveniences, as well as huge financial loss in making system recovery.

Internet and network attack that jeopardize security include virus, worm, and Trojan horse. Virus is a piece of code that is secretly introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data. Virus attack can damage the operating system, causing the loss of data and other possible losses. A worm is a program that copies itself repeatedly. The repeatedly copied files use up the available space and slow down a computer operating speed. On the other hand, a Trojan horse is a program that hides within or looks like a legitimate program. Although they seem to be harmless, they may however be triggered if certain condition is certified.

A back door is a set of instructions in a program that allow users to bypass security control when accessing a program, computer, or network. Once perpetrators gain access to unsecure computers, they often install a back door or modify an existing program to include a back door, enabling them to continue to access the computers remotely without the user’s knowledge.

In conclusion, risk exposed by computer users is increasing with the increasing developed technology. Therefore, safeguards developed must be always up to date to enhance the defenses against online security threats. In the same time, users must be educated and informed about the crucial damages and loss caused by imposing online security threats.


References:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39456
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computer_security_hacker_history

Posted by mapleleaf at 5:27 PM 2 comments  

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Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

Phishing is a criminal and fraudulently activity carried out on computers to acquire sensitive information such as try get hold of a person’s user name, password and credit card details. The most common way that phishers will attempt to get this information is by email or instant messaging and often directs users to enter details at a website. Normally, PayPal, eBay and online bank are phisher’s common targets. The damages cause by the phishing is that the victims may incur the financial loss due to denial access to the email.

There are some examples of the phishing:


The email looks like a real Citicorp email and the link in the email contains the name "Citibank". However, it has nothing to do with Citibank. To see the real link in an email message, right click on the text and choose “properties” from the context menu. To see an example of a faked link, try to log on to http://www.microsoft.com


This is an eBay phishing email includes the eBay logo in an attempt to gain credibility. The email notes that the billing information in the account is error and the eBay member need to login and verify the charges.

There are some methods use to prevent the phishing such as never reply to email that request your personal information or financial information. You should be suspicious when one sends you any email to ask you update your personal information or confirm it. Besides that, use anti virus and anti spam software and update them all regularly to ensure that you are blocking from new virus. The anti spam software can be use to analysis the content within the message or in urls and delete the phishing mail while the normal email gets filtered through to your inbox. Another way to prevent the phishing is review credit card and bank account statement regularly to ensure that no unauthorized transactions have been made. If your statement is late, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.

Posted by QQ at 8:33 AM 0 comments  

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Friday, June 20, 2008

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

What and why we need third-party certification?

Third-party certification is a scientific process by which a product, process or service is reviewed by a reputable and unbiased third party to verify that a set of criteria, claims or standards are being met. A third-party certification can reduce the time and expense needed for identifying, selecting and purchasing the products. Third-party certification is not the final word. The consumer has the final say. But a third-party certification claim is an important factor to consider when selecting a product.

The basic values of a third-party certification are to provide a measure of conformity, satisfy customer demands and limit supplier risks without the expense of repeating tests. Certifying organizations are anxious to maintain their reputation and sustain their integrity and will provide an excellent way to validate trustworthy of website while protecting consumers from myths, misconceptions, misleading information and “fly by night” manufacturers.

Example:


MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd is one of the popular Certification Authority (CA) in Malaysia and it is recognized by most of the Malaysian as a mark of safety and quality. MSC Trustgate has joint venture with the Verisign which is the largest certificate authority behind the encryption and authentication on the Internet in American. Verisign provide the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology to MSC Trustgate, this is a cryptographic protocols that provide secure communications on the Internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, Internet faxing, instant messaging and other data transfers. Maybank2u is using the MSC Trustgate SSL to enables encryption of sensitive information during online transactions.

Posted by DownBang at 4:09 AM 0 comments  

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

As technology in this world improved day by day, our personal and financial information are getting easily and easily to be stolen and misused. People can access our personal data as well as our financial data easily trough internet. Other than that, they may also get the data by steal our wallets and purses that contains our identification; steal our mail, for example, bank and credit card statements; steal files or bribe employees who have access to files with our information and many more. Most of people that been stolen their personal and financial data will suffer financial loss. For example, the thief might use our bank account or credit cards. So, we need to take some important steps to prevent and also to safeguard our personal and financial information.

First of all, we should increase our awareness of how and when we use our personal information. By doing this, we can reduce the chance that our personal information from being misuse. This can be done by follow some steps suggested below.

Firstly, never give personal or financial information over the phone or Internet unless you initiated the contact. If you are told to send your information through email or phone, do not entertain it. It can be easily stolen.

Secondly, use strong password and try to avoid using your date of birth as password.
Most importantly, memorize the password. Do not record the password on paper that carry with you.

Thirdly, check your monthly credit card and bank statements for unusual activity. If you found any unusual record in your statement, contact the relevant authorities to check out with it.

Fourthly, use a firewall program on your computer, especially if you leave your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day, and never download files that sent by strangers. It helps to prevent hacker and cracker to obtain our information.

Lastly, shred receipts and copies of documents with personal information if they are no longer needed. Some identity thief might rummage through your trash to get your personal data. So, if we shred it, they would never had chance to look at it.

Other than preventing, if we suspect that we had become a victim of personal and financial data thieves, we should act immediately. We should recall all the activities that might cause the data stolen and try to remember the person that we suspected. Then, we should call the police and immediately close the account that had been theft.

As a conclusion, prevention is better than cure. We should always alert and aware of the confidentiality of our personal and financial data. We can stop it before it happen.

Posted by PanDa at 10:58 AM 1 comments  

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

E-Commerce reduces cycle time, improves employee's empowerment and facilitates customer support

E-commerce is short for electronic commerce, which is defined as the marketing of goods and services over the internet. Most of the large businesses typically have e-commerce websites, enabling customers and sellers to conduct business online. The websites established usually show details of their products and services, as well as related company information. Customers, sellers and interested parties can access to this information online.

Cycle time is defined as the amount of time the company takes to complete a business process. It is also defined as the time that elapses from the beginning to the end of a process. E-commerce reduces cycle time. It shortens the buying process. E-commerce does not only provide tangible products, but it includes a variety of products and services. E-commerce nowadays provides products and services like retail, finance, entertainment and media, and travel etc. With just few clicks, customers are able to find the stuff they desired. And these purchases can be done in few minutes online. E-commerce decreases and even eliminates the frustrations of locating and waiting for the product customers want by searching from mall to mall. The most well known e-commerce company is Dell Computers. Dell uses the Internet to enhance the advantages of direct marketing and hosts one of the world’s largest volume e-commerce Web sites. Customers can configure and price computers, order systems, and track their orders online. Its websites also provides simple interface for smooth transactions. Therefore, customers can purchase the desired Dell computers in beneficial and comfortable ways. This simple interface increases the sales and customer satisfactions in the same time.

Employee empowerment is the practice of giving non-managerial employees the obligations and the power to make decisions regarding their jobs or tasks. Large businesses nowadays need e-commerce to diversify their services. They do not only provide their products and services in shops, they provide such services online as well. With the establishment of e-commerce, employees can be empowered by delegating e-commerce responsibilities to them, such as allowing their employee to design the web sites and process, control and ensure the smoothness of transactions online, respond to complaints and suggestions of customer online, as well as updating company web site’s information, such as products details and news.

E-commerce websites are always equipped with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to facilitate customer support. This section contains frequently asked questions, together with the answers. Therefore, whenever customers have any doubts on the products or services provided in e-commerce website, they can first check at FAQ section. Alternatively, if the mentioned section still does not answer customers’ doubts and questions, they can write complaints via e-mail and e-mail them to the e-mail address provided. The contact details are usually listed in ‘customer service’ section provided in e-commerce website. For example, Dell e-commerce website is equipped with ‘customer service’ under ‘support section. Therefore, if the customers have further questions, they can contact Dell via e-mail or phone call, as provided in Dell’s website.

As a result, e-commerce nowadays has been improved continuously and it starts to gain confidence of consumers increasingly. Therefore, e-commerce has a promising future and it can be a great success if it is used and implemented in a smart way.

Posted by mapleleaf at 8:55 PM 0 comments  

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The Failure of Webvan.com and Its Causes

Webvan.com was an online grocery business that delivered products to customers’ homes within 30-minutes after their choosing. It was started in early of year 1999 and offered its services in 9 different cities in United State. Within a short period, the company grew very fast and it attracted many funding and managed to raise its capital to $375 million USD in an IPO (Initial Public Offering). This raise gave Webvan.com confidence to continue expand its business to other 26 cities in a short period. However, in early of year 2001, Webvan.com started to close down its business over the country and the CEO, George Shaheen, had stepped down. In a few months time, Webvan.com had run out of money and its stock price had dropped from $30 USD to $0.06 USD. In July 2001, the company’s shareholders voted to approve a 25-to-1 reverse stock split in a last ditch effort to keep the company afloat. Unfortunately, it was too late. A week later, Webvan.com shut down its operations.

The failure of Webvan.com had a few causes. Although the Webvan.com spokesman Bud Grebey said that the shut down of Webvan.com is caused by the company changed its delivery fees, bad press over former CEO George Shaheen stepping down and a critical auditor's report, but it isn’t so. One main factor that causes Webvan.com to shut down was the company grew too big in too short period. The company focus on short-term profit rather than long-term. Webvan.com had ignored the growth and market share which were important component to success in long-term. Other than that, it was too soon for the company to grow and expend to 26 cities coverage market within a two to three year time. It had not attracted enough customers to justify its spending.

Other than that, the second factor that leads to Webvan.com’s failure was too much spending in infrastructure. Webvan.com spend too much than its earning. For example, it signed a $1 billion USD contract to build a string of high-tech warehouses worth about $30 million each. It is way too much for the company’s income. The investment is greater than its sales growth. The plan of expanding in short period also had made a big impact in losing their income quickly.

The third reason of Webvan.com failure is that the company did not attempt a partner which is a brick-and-mortar organization. The company did all things by themselves. But technically, the company did not have any experience or knowledge in supermarket industry. It developed its own infrastructure to deliver groceries. The company should have partnered with an existing supermarket chain or wholesalers for example.

As a conclusion, although Webvan.com was very successful for attracting investors, but it failed to attract partners to help them. These reasons had lead to the failure of this company in a short period.


References:

  1. Farmer, M.A., & Sandoval, Greg (2001). Webvan delivers its last word: Bankruptcy. Retrieved June 12, 2008, from http://news.cnet.com/Webvan-delivers-its-last-word-Bankruptcy/2100-1017_3-269594.html?tag=news.1

  2. German, Kent (n.d.). Top 10 dot-com flops. Retrieved June 12, 2008, from http://www.cnet.com/4520-11136_1-6278387-1.html

Posted by PanDa at 11:45 AM 0 comments  

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

History and Evolution of E-Commerce

E-Commerce was birth out from the World-Wide-Web (WWW). The first extended use of a form of electronic commerce appeared in the early 1970s, when system called Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) was introduced. This enabled banks and financial institutions to transfer over secure networks large amounts of money either among themselves or with associated businesses.

In the late of 1970s, the introduction of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) made it possible for companies to interface and trade without any human contact and it enables inter-company exchanges of documents, such as order forms for suppliers, invoices, customs forms, reimbursement receipts, stock inventories and etc.

In the late 1980s, the new type of applications which is electronic mail (e-mail) was widely adopted in the business world. When it was first introduced, this system was considered a major breakthrough.

In year 1992, The National Science Foundation lifted restrictions on the Internet allowing commercial use. CompuServe offers online retail products to its customers. This gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer.

In year 1994, Netscape arrived which providing users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer.

In year 1995, two of the biggest names in e-commerce are launched which is EBay and Amazon.com. Generally, B2C websites are the bridge that link customers to suppliers such as EBay, online auction. Beside that, the B2C concerns itself with selling to the end user such as Amazon, online book retailers. On the other hand, the e-commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as B2B such as Microsoft sell his software to other organization.

In the very beginning, many people will have doubt on e-commerce but now it is become a modern tool, not only e-commerce revolutionized the world of wholesale, but also retail. As a result of that, the businesses are now continually searching for new ways to meet the needs of the online market such as Wal-Mart, they target on integrating consumer relationship with e-commerce industry to increases their customer base.

The technology used for e-commerce is young, but it's expanding faster than any before it and will soon be the most advanced system the world has ever seen and e-commerce is still one of the leading forces of economic growth today.

Posted by DownBang at 8:44 PM 0 comments  

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The success of Amazon.com and its causes

Amazon.com is an American electronic commerce company in Seattle, Washington. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and launched it online in 1995, which is an e-commerce best known as the first online retailer of the Internet world. Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China and Japan.

Amazon.com does not only sale the book, it also sale variety of electronic items such as video, music, health and fitness, wireless cell phones, house holds, software, and many more stuff. Besides that, Amazon.com also offer more types of products, more conveniently, and at lower prices to fulfill the customers need.

Amazon.com has been success in the field of e- commerce because the effective management and consumer identification in the market. The strategy for Amazon.com for selling the product is different from other e-commerce organizations. Its prudential approach generated a marginal increase to the revenues as well as expanded its existing commercial activities. So, when the market is slow, Amazon.com also has the globally customer base with a steady increase from its sales products.

Values play an important role in Amazon.com’s succeeding. There are two values that are practiced by Amazon.com. These are customer satisfaction and operational frugality. Due to frugality value, Amazon,com paid the lower rate of salary to employees compare than other company. So, it can invest more on branding and business expansion. However, Amazon.com sustain employee loyalty through employees own the company’s share. Therefore, when Amazon.com earns the profit, their shares will profit too.

Another factor that causes it success is customer services. This success is based on customer-value proposition, such as leave a positive impression to the visitor when they visit the Amazon.com site, while also providing buyers with reasons to visit the store again. Besides that Amazon.com has to perform as their promised, such as punctual delivery.

In 2008 Amazon expanded into film production and is currently funding The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox. The domain amazon.com attracted at least 615 million visitors annually by 2008 according to compete.com survey.

Posted by QQ at 5:17 AM 0 comments  

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Saturday, June 7, 2008

self introduction

My name is Ng Poh Kiew. I am 21years old, and my horoscope is Sagittarius. I come from Klang, Selangor and now I am staying at Bandar Sungai Long for study purpose. Currently I study in UTAR taking Bachelor of Commerce Accounting. My hobbies are listening music, sleeping and watch drama. An animal i like is rabbit because it is very cute.

The top 5 websites that I visit the most would be http://www.friendster.com/ .I visit these websites are to get to know more friends in Friendster and to see my friends’ recent situation through their blogs and photos. Second is http://www.google.com/ , because it is the home page for my internet explorer and I usually use it to search information. Third is http://www.yahoo.com/ to check my mail. Fourth is http://www.wble.utar.edu.my/ ,through this website, I can read the forum which posted by the lecturers and the students, and also test and exam. The last will be http://www.youtube.com/. I like to watch videos using Youtube because it has many latest video.

Posted by QQ at 4:19 AM 0 comments  

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Introductions...Panda is here!!

Hey there, my name is Lee Ming Xuan from Butterworth, Penang. Currently study in UTAR Sg Long taking Bachelor of Commerce Accounting. I got few nicknames. The one that I like to use the most is Panda or Bearcat (panda in Chinese ^.^ ). The new one is Taufuman, because I easily get injured and my friend thinks of this nickname for me. Others…I don’t quite feel comfortable to let you all know (:p).
Well, I like to watch movies and dramas. That’s what I do when I am free and also not free. Another hobby would be eating. Haha!
The 5 websites that I visit the most would be www.google.com , because it is the home page for my internet explorer (@.@). 2nd is http://ikariam.org which is the web browser game that I played recently. 3rd is www.friendster.com . I think every young people will also visit Friendster everyday, to look for friends update and also look for new friends. 4th is www.youtube.com . I like to watch videos using Youtube. The video that I watch recently is Happy Tree Friends which is a very cruel and bloody cartoon. But don’t know why I feel it is very funny! Hahahaha!! The 5th is www.yahoo.com to check my mail. Well, sometimes I also will visit my friend’s blog which is http://myanothermapleleaf.blogspot.com ( pay me commission for promoting your blog :p )
I use the internet mostly to chat with my friends, emailing, play games, watch movies and listen musics...and ofcourse download something that i like. ( :p )
That’s all I want to tell you guys. For more information, please feel free to contact me and I will tell you more about me.

p/s: I also don’t want to write this kind of boring self introduction, but this is our tutorial question, no choice……….

Posted by PanDa at 2:49 AM 0 comments  

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My Boring Introduction

Greetings ladies and gentlemen! I am Low Chin Hui from Balakong, Selangor. I am currently pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting in Utar Sungai Long. I am a class representative of my tutorial group, which is BAC Group 10. Most of my class mates call me class rep, instead of my name. Consequently, there are still a few of my classmates who still do not know my real name very well. =_=

I was borned in Tapah, Perak. Since then my family has moved to several places due to my father's job location, like Melacca, Ipoh, Salak Selatan and finally we settle down at Balakong. I enjoy drawing, watching movies and chatting as well as blogging during my leisure time. I have a personal blog. I often post my drawings in there. Right picture shown is my self portrait in my personal blog.

The top 5 websites i visit the most are as the followings:
1. http://mail.yahoo.com
3. http://chinapress.com.my
4. http://google.com
5. http://wikipedia.org

I always check my yahoo mailbox first whenever i connect to internet. After that, I will browse through my personal blog to see whether I have new comments on my posts. Every night, I will visit chinapress website to check out for latest news in Malaysia. On the other hand, google is a very powerful search engine that I use to look out for information that i need. Lastly, I visit wikipedia to check out for my favorite series's latest update.

That's all for my boring self introduction. If I am given choices, I really hope that I do not have to do this self introduction.

P/s: Believe or not? I spend almost one and a half hour to finish this introduction!!

Posted by mapleleaf at 12:22 AM 0 comments  

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Intoduction...

Hello there... I am Yik Wei Xiang, 21 Years old and I come from Johor Bahru (Skudai's Duck Noodle is nice...), for the purpose of study...i am now staying at Bandar Sungai Long (Tao Yuan Chicken rice also not bad) currently taking the Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting in Utar. My hobbies are watch movie, play guitar and computer games (dare to challenge me at WOW ? Send tell to Dianlao at wowspace's funserver :P). Previously, my friends usually call me the most popular nicknames for fatty " XiaoPang (fatty in Chinese) ", but i don't really like it so i change it to " XiaoBang (Chopin in Chinese) ". The most up-to-date one is " DownBang " because i get screw in a guitar performance at the musical night and i still feel very down now...

The top 5 websites that i visit the most would be http://www.google.com/ , because i can search and get the useful information from here such as some guitar chords from here (i'm currently learning the guitar). 2nd is http://www.youtube.com/, i can watch a lot of funny video and great performance at here. Third, http://www.mail.yahoo.com/, i can check my mail by this websites and sending assignment or presentation slide to my friend (it is a important tool for me).Fourth, http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/, this is a game's websites that i manage my game's account (i spend a lot of time on it). 5th is http://www.utar.edu.my/, use this websites to check my result (please...no F for this semeste).

Posted by DownBang at 3:01 AM 0 comments  

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