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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.