Paradise

Review a local, transactional e-commerce site

2009-07-09T20:43:00.004+08:00

Do you have experience of online shopping or participating in e-auction? Do you visiting the “e-bay”- a well-known worldwide electronic auctions website that allow you to make bids if you are a buyer or place offers if you are a seller.

This is the link to ebay.com: http://www.ebay.com/

In Malaysia, there are quite a number of local e-commerce sites like the “e-bay”. So, now I would like to introduce a famous local e-auction and online shopping site to all of you- that is lelong.com. Did you hear this name before this?

This is the link to lelong.com: http://www.lelong.com.my/

This e-commerce site has established in Malaysia several years ago. Lelong.com allows the users to have online internet auction and trading for many types of products or services like electronic products, books, home appliances and so on- even the houses or cars. Just like e-bay, lelong.com provide search engine in order to help the users easily find what they are interesting in. Besides, this e-commerce site also allows you to open your own “store”. Lelong.com has three different language versions- English, Chinese and Malay. It makes lelong.com stands out among the competitors in Malaysian market.

Maybe, lelong.com is not as famous or well-known as the e-auction giant- e-Bay, but this is a pure Malaysian and local e-auction site. If you always visiting the e-auction site like e-bay to buy or sell thing, why not next time you try to visit lelong.com?

E-GoVerNmEnT

2009-07-09T20:04:00.011+08:00

Various countries are implementing electronic government, including Malaysia. Electronic Government, or known as E-Government was launched since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by the Malaysian government. Through E-Government, it will improve in both how the government operates internally and how it delivers services to Malaysian citizens. In the year 2008, there are 2006 MSC Malaysia Status companies. Besides that, more than RM 814 Million is being used as expenses in R&D. Moreover, 52 MSC Malaysia Status Companies listed on the MESDAQ. Malaysia also ranked 34th amongst the 192 United Nation members in using the ICT in UN E-Government Survey conducted in year 2008.

To accelerate the objectives of Vision 2020, Flagship Applications was launched. There are seven Flagship Applications:

1. Electronic Government
2. Multipurpose Card
3. Smart School
4. Telehealth
5. R&D Clusters
6. E-Business
7. Technopreneur Development

One of the project under Flagship is ‘’farmers go digital’’. This project launched in May 2008 and it allowed farmers to sell their produce at pasar tani in a database whereby consumers could access online. Now, these pasar tani has been expanded to cover most of the 273 sites nationally.
Besides that, Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, executive officer of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) said that the Education Ministry is extending the smart school programme to another 15 schools in rural place. Out of these 15 schools, 2 schools would be enjoying benefits such as notebooks, wireless Internet connection (WiFi) and wireless digital communication system (WiMAX).

There are 7 pilot projects under the main E-Government:

1. Project Monitoring System (PMS)

2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)

3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)

4. Electronic Procurement (EP)

5. Electronic Services (E-Services)

6. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)

7. E-Syariah

Although E-Government launched about 10 years ago, but only a small number of citizens are using it. Thus, government has to take attention on the citizen’s adoption strategies to improve the level of E-Government.

1. Easy to use
The website should design in a way that makes it easier for every citizen to use or learn, especially for the senior citizens. It should not need to go through many steps in order to use the services in the websites.

2. Availability of info
Government should always keep their websites up-to-date. It must make sure that there is availability of information for citizens to obtain it. It also has to make sure that the info is accurate.

3. Quality of services
In E-Government websites, there should be columns as Frequent Ask Question (FAQ) to meet the needs of citizens. It also should include fax number as well as telephone number.

4. Usage of MyKad
Mykad should use widely other than identity functions. Although some of the citizens can use their Mykad to register under ‘’farmers go digital’’, but Mykad should use as other functions as well.

References:

1.E-Government overview, 7 July 2009, from http://www1.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm

2. E-government-Malaysia, 8 July 2009, from http://www.simu.sarawak.gov.my/e_gov.html

Corporate Blogging: A new Marketing communication tool for companies

2009-07-07T19:28:00.009+08:00

As define is wikipesia, corporate blog is published and used by an organization to ahieve their organization goal and objective. There are two major type of corporate blog which is internal blog and external blog.

Basically, internal blog is accessed through intranet and allowed employees to participate in discussion, sometimes it is also used for meeting purpose.

External blog is a publicity weblog where allow outsider and employee to share their opinion. Usually, it is used to introduce new products or services of company or explain company policy. Public may give reaction or critic on the particular policy so that company can imrprove themselves through external party idea and comment. Some of the organization will review the comment given by public before publish, but somehow, there are some will allow comment directly post up without review by company.

How a Corporate Blog helps company in marketing communication ?

i) Customer relationship

Nowadays, there is a phrase as 'customers will always be right'. Blog are the fastest way to get customer feedback. Between, customer may provide some tips for improvement. This can help company to maintain relationship between customer and organization. Recently, there many browser support RSS technology which enables readers to read latest post and update subscriber just in time.

ii) Test ideas or products

Before a company wanted to launch new products or policies, they can post up to blog. Most of the people will comment on it, this helps company to measure the value. If majority agree or express positive comment, they may gain higher revenue. If most of the comment is negative, company can reconsider whether new products should be lauched or should implement new policy. This can helps company to reduce risk of suffering loss because of new products or policies are not supported by customers.

iii) Advertising for company

Corporate blogging can be advertisement of company because customer will seek there again and again. This will be the advertisement of the company indirectly. When customer think that they can obtain many information from the company blog, they will introduce to the others. So the brand and the name of the company will be known by public. Blogging can consider as the cheapest method to advertise their company.

If a company decide to create company blog, the most well-known free blog publishing system is 'blogger'and it is free of charge. There are some others blog publishing system such as 'wordpress', but the issue of using free blog service is we don't know how long it will be free, and what will happen if they shut down the data? These are few issues that have to be considered if company are using free blog service.

According to a research, there are 15 companies that are really get into corporate blogging:

1. Dell
2. Lenovo

3. 37signals

4. Adobe

5. BBC

6. Southwest Airlines

7. Sun Microsystems

8. Freshbooks

9. Marriott International

10. Seagate

11. General Motors

12. Quicken Loans

13. FiveRuns

14. Accenture

15. Amazon Web Services

There is another author, Marshall Kirkpatrick also found some company that do good in corporate blog, please refer to

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/good_company_blogs.php

References:

i) Catone, J.15 Companies That Really Get Corporate Blogging, 7 July 2009, from http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/08/08/15-companies-that-really-get-corporate-blogging/

ii) Corporate blog. 7 July 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog

iii) Kirkpatrick, M.Nine Company Blogs That Are Fun For Anyone to Read, from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/good_company_blogs.php

iv) Your Guide to Corporate Blogging. 7 July 2009, from http://www.corporateblogging.info/

2009-07-06T21:49:00.000+08:00

Every sector in this world is moving forward to be globalize, people are demanding for speed, efficiency, convenience and technology. Electronic and internet thus become the basis tools to achieve these criteria. E-learning is the latest method that become a popular trend in education sector. E-learning is basically an Internet + IT learning. Students can study and communicate with their lecturers and peers no matter how far their distance is. By using simple electronic device such as computer, web cam, PDA etc. The student can access to the database provided by the university to get their study materials. Examination are done on the internet discussions are conducted on the forum or virtual classrooms. However this method has arise many controversial issues that many people doubts that its pros can compensate with its cons. Well, from the student perspective we analyze what are the pros and cons of E-learning.

Pros:

1.Flexibility. Student can have a more flexible timing to conduct their study. Since they can study and finish the syllabus from their from their preferred locations, they can save time by avoiding travel to campus. This also benefit those handicap society that may feel uncomfortable to study in crowd and suffer difficulty to move around.

2. Self pace and flexible learning. Every student is different. Some of them are fast learners, while others might need a lot of time to digest the notes, think a lot in order to comprehend a chapter. If they are mix in a class, slow learners type of students can be fall behind of those fast learners. Eventually they have to push themselves to adapt the speed and they may feel uneasy to ask questions while people around them had already understand. E-learning allow these students to adjust their studies according to their ability.

3. Some student can study better at home or out of school. They can perceive a lecture better if they are reading in a familiar place. When they feel stress, they can simply stop study for a while and get some refreshments. By doing this way, they can understand better and faster.

Cons:

1. No competition no motivation. Some students they will work harder if people around them are scoring better than them. They feel challenged academically and this will motivate them to study more. But E-learning separate students individually, they are studying alone and always has nobody to refer and discuss. They feel unmotivated when they can compare their standards of achievement. As long as they get graduate they feel satisfied.

2. Cheating. Most of the examinations are conducted without supervision. Students are allowed to do their test from their home or anywhere. They can have many friends beside them and discuss the questions and the answers are not solely contributed by the student alone. The credit or the honor of the exam might not fulfill the original purpose.

3. Distraction. When people are living in a familiar environment, they are easily distract to others things especially when there is no strict supervision. For instance when a student is trying to learn a lecture, they could be chit chating with their friends or simply join a network society. Thus they can't focus on what they are reading. End of the day, they waste their time for learning nothing. Money and time were wasted and they don't even get a desirable result.

Conclusion, e-learning has vary impact and effect on every people. This method of teaching might suit certain people very well but it can also work less to other group of people. My advice, choose properly a method of learning that really suit yourself.

ElecTroNic CurRenCy

2009-07-06T20:12:00.005+08:00

There are numerous names used to describe electronic currency such as e-money, electronic cash, digital money, digital cash or digital currency. It’s an electronic worldwide currency. This online payment system provides a safe, easy and inexpensive way for everyone to transact business 24/7. Currently, e-cash represented by two models which is on-line and off-line version. On-line form of e-cash allows for the completion of all internet transactions. While the off-line form is a digitally encoded card that could be used for many of the same transactions as cash.

Here are some successful examples of using electronic currency. One of it is Hong Kong’s Octopus card system. This card can transfer the electronic payments in online as well as in offline system. Octopus card was the first card system implement in the world. Nowadays, this card system used widely for all public transport payments in Hong Kong. It also can use for payment at supermarkets, parking meters and so on.

Besides that, FeliCa (Felicity Card) is an electronic card system by Sony. This card system was first utilized in the Octopus card system in Hong Kong, followed by other countries such as Japan and Singapore.

Other than that, Chipknip was introduced in 1996 in Netherlands. This Chipknip can use for payments in public transport, car parking and shops. But this system is suitable for small retail transactions due to the maximum value of the transactions are limited.

In future, this electronic currency will be use widely throughout the world. This is because this system will bring lots of advantages to everyone over the world. Examples are convenience and privacy, increased the efficiency of transactions expand the economic activities on Internet.

References:

1. Octopus card, 1 July 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card#Types_of_cards

2.What is E-Cash?, 1 July 2009, from http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/goshtigian/define.htm

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

2009-07-06T20:11:00.000+08:00

Credit card, some people think that it is the greatest inventions; some people think that it is a evil thing. So what make credit card so special that people are having love hate feelings toward it?

Well, as simple as ABC, Credit card is a plastic card that is designed to be elegant and high-class look-like card. Its special and charming function is to help people to pay for card holders' desire things and services, by actually loan to them. Once card older had sweep it to make a payment, interest will be charge and total accumulated interest and payments will be printed in a nice and tidy statement that guarantee deliver to your doorsteps every month. That is the time people start wondering and consistently asking themselves whether you really spend that much? Whether they have bought these expensive clothes? Whether you had dine in those fancy and expensive restaurants?

A man dressed as an ancient Chinese official (L) drags a credit card "slave", or a consumers in credit card debt, as they take part in a demonstration calling for the government to pass a law to help people owing money to banks, 02 June 2007, in Taipei.

Undoubtedly, credit card had bring a lot of joy, fun and convenience for us. Especially for this modern and speed demanding era. It is very useful that people can buy many things without carry many stacks of money. It gives people conveniences to shop easily and faster. People use it to pump gas, do online bookings buy clothes etc... You enjoy the moment of sweep that card at counters, you feel proud when you showing off people your unlimited credit platinum credit card ... as a consequence, and you bear mountains of debt every months. Credit is the promising to spend future earnings in order to obtain a good or service today. That is why people named it as credit card. It is fun when you can afford (virtually) to buy any things as you like, people always experience a situation like "spend today and worry tomorrow". While in fact they do not have so many savings to cover the debts. If they could not clear the debts bank will charge interest from time to time and debts can go even higher.

Nowadays, many banks are competing within themselves to offer their credit card services to the public. In order to grab people's attention, they doing many promotions, brainwashing people with many sweet talks and tempt them with good offers, such as point exchange, travel package and hotel...etc. Many people falls in their trap, hence sign many cards. People are carrying more than one credit card. So, if they went to shop and either one of their card has reach the limit and they already queuing in front of many people, they will try others card to buy that particular things to avoid being disgraced. While they actually realize that they are having serious problems ahead.

Credit card basically can destroys money management. Why it is so? During this financial crisis time, many merchandisers are offer cash rebate to encourage shoppers to buy more. Though some of the cash rebates only need a very low limit but imagines if consumers buy all the unnecessary things just to get the little amount of cash rebates, it could be a bubble. As a consequence of tempted to the cash rebates card holders did’t realise that they are actually spending over their budget. Worse thing is they usually realize it after payments made.

For those who having debts or going to own a credit card soon, here is a few tips that i hope can help you:
1. Plan what you really need to buy and not what you want to buy. Do some calculations that roughly how much you require to purchase the things. Bring enough cash with you just to buy, eat and for transport.
2. Do walk away and reject those handsome or pretty sales persons that come to approach you. Remember you enjoy now, you suffer in future. Bear in mind that credit card is sucking your future money.
3. Probably we should switch back to pay by cash. By doing this way, you can count and remember how much that you spend and how much that you left for savings.
4. If you really need a credit card so much, i suggest that you should just limit your credit limit to the lowest, hmmm...maybe one thousand in a month? Or choose debit card instead, it functions exactly like your credit card but the only differences is you spend what you have. Therefore you won't carry debts.
5. Lastly if you are carrying many credit cards it is time for you to choose which one offers the best and worthy interest rate and terminate all those others.

The Application of pre-paid cash card for Consumer

2009-07-05T15:59:00.033+08:00

The function of prepaid cards are just similar to credit cards. They offer the users to purchase products and services in the market but the significant difference is that user can only spend the amount that has been preloaded onto the card but not pay at the end of month.

There various way to reload prepaid cards such as reload through bank, post office or bank transfer. However, it depends on the prepaid provider company policy. Every company mayb have differennt policy, therefore, consumer need compare which will be more felxible while choosing prepaid card.

There are few major Advantages of prepaid card, such as:

i) Availability - Consumer can get a card withoud worry about credit history because there are no credit check available.

ii) Safety issue - Carrying a card will be more safer than carry cash especially when want to pay a huge transaction amount.

iii) Control - Parents can control their children's spending by just reload a certain amount into children card. Besides that, this can also limit consumer spending since the spending amount is just limited to the balance of the prepaid card, so that consumer do not have to bear debt risk.

PreCash had conduct a survey on application of consumer using prepaid card, the result are as follow:

1. To pay bills

2. They wanted a Visa card

3. They wanted direct deposit

4. To avoid carrying cash

5. To shop online

There are some other application that is common seen in Malaysia such 'Touch n Go'. Initially, it is just to use for pay toll fee, but after some time, Touch n Go card holder can use the prepaid card to paid train(KTM) fare also. Besides that, some of the busses company also allow passenger to use Touch n Go to pay the fare for example Rapid KL.

Some of the cafe is also promoting own shop prepaid card to consumer , for example Island Red Cafe(IRC) , but this is only restricted to their member only.

Other than that, some online games company also offer prepaid card to their players, for example i1game company.

Reference:

i) . 5 July 2009, from http://www.i1games.com/index.asp?show=games&link=direct&bid=16

ii) Guide to Prepaid Cards. 5 July 2009, from http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/prepaid-cards/guide/1/

iii) Why people use prepaid card. 5 July 2009, from http://prepaidexpo.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-people-use-prepaid-cards.html

A review on post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog

2009-07-04T20:55:00.000+08:00

Nowadays, we can buy touch n go card in any retail shop around us. In our earlier perception, “touch n go” is used for traveling by bus, KTM, LRT, other public transport, as well as passing tolls. However, the review on the post "Using Touch n Go card to buy fast food in Malaysia will be a reality" in http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing brings a new point of view to us on the usefulness of Touch n Go card.

When you are traveling on the highway, and take rest at the comfort stop. Do you hope to have a meal at there? There are some fast food restaurants, like KFC, Burger King, A&W, and so on. No need to carry too much cash along the trip, what you only need is your Touch n Go card – as long as there is enough balance in your card. Some more, there are some promotion when you use Touch n Go card to consume in the restaurants above mentioned.

Besides, Dunkin’ Donut, 7-eleven, Carrefour hypermarkets, Caltex convenience stores also accept payment made by Touch n Go card. The card can be reloaded through bank, retail shop, 7-eleven, and so on. It will not be troublesome for cardholder to reload the card.

Well, additional functions of Touch n Go card bring more benefits and convenience to consumers. It is improvement of e-tailing in our country, by using prepaid card – which known as “electronic purse”. Will it success to be used for retail purchasing? Appropriate promotions must be done to let public know the usefulness of this card, and then it will hit the target.

Example of Phishing and the prevention method

2009-06-28T15:21:00.014+08:00

The defination of phishing given in wikipedia.com, it is a process of trying to get some privacy information such as username, password, bank acoount and etc by act as a trustwothy entity that communicate in electronic form. The initial term is phishing was' fishing' , in year 1987 and started use term of 'phishing' in year 1996, it probably influence by word 'phreaking'.

Phishing usually carried out through e-mail or instant messaging. It will lead users to enter into an fake website that are looks and feels very similar to a legitimate website. Although there are ways to identify it, it needs professional and complicated skill to detect it.

Let's have a look of some example of phishing, ( click on the image to view larget image )

ii)

iii)

There are few methods to prevent loss from phishing,

i) Don't forge easily although there is a header. As mentioned in the Example (ii) of phishing, there is a YAHOO logo as the header of the mail, don't try to move on but analyse the validity of mail.

ii) Avoid filling out forms in e-mail messages. We can't know the certainty where the data will be sent and the information may have several stops on the way to the recipient. While information being send, there might be third party accessing ourinformation be it reach to destination. Usually, reputable company do not request their customer to update their file or verify their privacy and security information through e-mail, they will contact the customer dierectly.

iii) If you click on a link in an e-mail message, veirfy the legitimacy of the web address with the company DIRECTLY before sending any privacy information.Some of the phishing will add some other link such as agreement, policy and etc. Only those link is linked to the company but the link to obtain your information might not from the company.

Reference:

Phishing. 28 June 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

SonicWALL Phishing and Spam IQ Quiz. 28 June 2009, from http://www.sonicwall.com/phishing/

Watch Out for "Phishing" Emails Attempting to Capture Your Personal Information. 28 June 2009, from http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/phishing.htm

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

2009-06-27T16:36:00.010+08:00

Nowadays, cases of hackers increase rapidly. This kind of crimes happened at every nook and corner of the world. In order to lessen the chances of becoming one of the victims, we should protect and manage our privacy well. A good control over privacy will make sure our personal and private data are in a secure and safe level. Appropriate steps should be taken to protect our data.

1. Keep the identification numbers or passwords confidential. We should not share these private data with others. Also have to make sure to change the passwords frequently.

2. Always sign off the web sites after finished using it, especially online at cyber café. Make sure closed all the windows before you leave.

3. Shred the old statements or cut the no longer use credit cards / debit cards into small pieces before discarding them into dustbin. Make sure the number of the cards is not recognizable.

4. Retain your receipts after transactions. Match the receipts against the statement. Make sure there is no suspicious transaction. Keep the statements that contain sensitive information in a safe place.

5. Do not reveal the privacy information to third parties, particularly to those who soliciting sales over the phone. Only give out the information when you know who the person you are dealing with is.

6. Update the computer security system regularly. A case in point is firewall system. It’s useful to detect and prevent the virus from attacking the computer system. Also keep a back-up duplicate copy in a secure place.

Reference:

1. Safeguarding your financial security: How to protect your privacy and safeguard against credit card fraud and identity theft. 27 June 2009, from http://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy/pdf/fin_security.pdf

The Application of 3rd Party Certification Programme In MAlaysia

2009-06-25T17:16:00.000+08:00

Online transaction is a very popular method for people around the world to do business. It is easy, fast and the transactions could be done at anywhere, anytime. But since it is paperless and deal on the internet, have you ever think about the security of those transactions?

To enhance the security of online business, Third Party Certification(TPC) programme was invented. TPC ensure that information were traveled to the desired locations and received by intended person. By doing this way, the website can be more reliable. TPC can safeguard the electronic documents from unauthorized changes because people cannot simply edit the content without verification or password that were provide by TPC companies. There are few websites that provide more details information regarding TPC.

One of them is TRUSTGATE. User can find many products and services that provided by them to secure people's information. VERISIGN is another company that provide similar services.

here are few reference sites that you can get more informations :
http://www.msctrustgate.com
http://www.verisign.com

A review on a post on Internet Security from My E-Commerce blog

2009-06-24T11:18:00.000+08:00

Reviewing post: "Spammer Agrees to $10 million settlement http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Internet%20Security

When we type “Ryan Pitylak” in any search engine, there are many results about Anti-spam activists, affiliate marketing services, viral marketing, anti-spam services, and so on. Well, his name is blacklisted previously as he is known as “spam king” at year 2004.

The man who was tricking people by sending 25 million spam-mails a day, now is turning a new leaf. I had viewed his blog: http://ryanpitylak.blogspot.com and it showed that “Ryan Pitylak” is one of anti-spam community. He provides services in stopping spam from spammers. He also provides other services as I mentioned above.

Graham Cluley of Sophos (1 of IT Security Company) said, "Spammers like Pitylak have shown themselves to be prepared to break the law in their eagerness to pump out unwanted marketing messages. Some companies may feel uncomfortable about working with someone who has shown a history of behaving unethically, without caring about the consequences for other internet users."

I think that we should give opportunity to wrong-maker because everyone would make mistake. People may change to be better. Besides, his previous experience is worth to the organization who hires him as he can provide more efficient way to fight against spam.

Now, he set up his own company, Pitylak Security. I believe that the person who can learn from mistakes and correct those mistakes will be successful

History and Evolution of E-Commerce

2009-06-17T21:01:00.000+08:00

Business trading is changing rapidly from time to time. From the earliest barter system, evolve into money trading and now card system. In the ancient people have to travel months or maybe years from one region to another to exchange goods, but e-commerce allow consumers to purchase anything from anyplace and anytime.

Electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce, is defined as buying and selling products or services through the internet. Basically, electronic commerce as the name implied is the doing business transaction electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and ElectronicFunds Transfer (EFT) . The function of e-commerce has been improved since it was first introduced. Back to the late 1970s, e-commerce allowing business to deliver and receive purchase order or invoices electronically. Later on at 1980s, credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking were growing and the public have massively using these services to do their daily transactions. Which make e-commerce become more and more general.. All documents and data were handle in paper-less, information can be transfer and found in just seconds. The technology had played an important role in assisting people to deal business electronically.

Nowadays, with just a personal computer or Smartphone in hand we can do a e-commerce. There are many websites on the internet that are helping consumers to buy and sell things, for example

Anyway they are also certain individuals that prefer to set up their own website to sell their things. They create their own webpage and promote their products and services, or even blogging too. E-commerce was made to be more effective and efficient thanks to easy online payments system such as http://www.blogger.com/www.paypal.com. Goods can be deliver to consumers at anyplace by courier companies such as FedEx, UPS ect.

E commerce success & its causes

2009-06-16T19:07:00.002+08:00

EPORIA.com known as a company that provides ecommerce web design and development for businesses throughout USA. In EPORIA, they provide services such as ecommerce web design, ecommerce software, internet marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) services for their clients who come from all sizes of industries. Throughout these years, their clients have come to them with one common need, which is selling more. So, EPORIA had met the client’s needs by putting their businesses in the fast track for a higher sale. EPORIA had been successfully developing and marketing ecommerce websites including books and magazines, home décor and furniture, industrial products and more.

Here are some reasons why EPORIA can be succeeded. First and foremost, EPORIA had advanced core technology. With the advanced technology, EPORIA can design the website that cam meet the needs of their clients. Hence, EPORIA can put their customers’ online businesses in the fast and right track.

Moreover, EPORIA has extensive experience in developing the ecommerce website for more than a decade. Designers and developers of EPORIA know what works online and what doesn’t. The most important is, they know what are the most effective techniques in designing and developing the ecommerce website nowadays. Thus, EPORIA puts their customers in the fast track for higher sales.

Besides that, there is an ecommerce solutions blog written by EPORIA. From this blog, the clients can learn the tips, tricks, and best practices of ecommerce. A case in point, the latest post of EPORIA is ‘’ecommerce reality check for success’’. Clients can get useful tips in order to manage their online business well.

References:
1. Ecommerce solutions blog. 19 June 2009, from http://eporiablog.wordpress.com/about-us/
2. The eporia method. 19 June 2009, from
http://www.eporiaecommerce.com/40259/The-EPORIA-Method.html

2009-06-15T21:08:00.000+08:00

Revenue model is description of how the company or an E-commerce project will earn revenue. It is include 5 models such as sales revenue model, transaction fees model, subscription fees, advertising fees, advertising model, and affiliate model.

Sales revenue model is companies generate revenue from selling merchandise on their web site of from providing a service
Transaction fees is company receives a commission based on the volume of transaction made.
Subscription fees are customers pay fixed amount, usually monthly, to get some type of service. Fee from subscribers is in exchange for access to content or service.
Advertising fees is companies charge others for allowing them to place a banner on their sites.
Affiliate fees are companies receive commissions for referring customers to other Web sites.

Now, let me compare each revenue model for Google, eBay, and Amazon.com.

Sales Revenue Model: The main representative is Amazon.com
The major revenue of Amazon.com is selling book, CDs, DVDs, software and so on. Amazon.com reported over 1.3million sellers sold products through Amazon’s worldwide web sites in 2009. Not only Amazon.com, eBay also make revenue through sales revenue model as well. However, Google seldom involve in such model as it major business is search engine.

Transaction Fees model: eBay is classical example for this model.
eBay is platform let people buy and sell their goods through their website. It become the intermediate in this trade and received transactions fee between them. Amazon.com and Google not much this kind revenue compare with eBay.

Subscription Fees Model: These three companies all got this kind of model.
(1) eBay
(2) Amazon.com
(3) Google

Advertising Fees Model: it is Google major revenue source.
Almost 99% sources revenue of Google is advertising fees, such Google Adwards and Google Adsense

Clickriver Ads can place advertisement on the Amazon.com

Same as the Amazon.com, eBay also got some this kind of model.

Affiliate Fees Model: Pay-Per-Click is most popular that Google use it generates revenue. As compare with eBay and Amazon, Google also very famous in this. Nowadays, affiliate program is also become more popular compare with advertising as it also part of the advertising. eBay and Amazon trend to become most using it as well..

References:
www.eBay.com
www.Amazon.com
www.Google.com

An Example of an E-commerce failure and its causes

2009-06-15T20:32:00.000+08:00

Boo.com started operating it's head office in London in 1998, the founder of this company is Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin. The vision of the company is to become the worlds first online global sports retail site. Their targeted maket is people within 18-24 years old and people interested in sports and fashion brands stocked by Boo.com

Boo.com provide very good visual effect to customer in their website , when customer drag the products to models, and can zoom in and rotate, so that customer could see the products in different angles. There is an analyst of New Media Age, Nik Margolis said:" What i saw at Boo.com is simply the most clever web experience I have seen in quite a while." He think that the way of presentation the product is so imaginative. Initially, their business is very suceesfull with on-time delivery and the approach rate is 100%.

Before launch, Malmsten explain meeting to Larry Lenihan, representative from Pequot Capital who had made successful investment in AOL and Yahoo. The management team of Boo.com able to provide sales forecast but they were unable to answer many basic question.
For example, “How many visitors are you aiming for?” “What kind of conversion rate are you aiming for? How much does each customer have to spend? What’s your customer acquisition cost. And what’s your payback time on customer acquisition cost?” Because of management team couldn't answer those question, so investors are not interested in investing in the company.

Till 18th May 2000, Boo.com liquidated because of investors refuse funding in the company.

The reason of Boo.com liquidate are as follow:

i) Multiple Currencies
If a company decide to trade globally, they can't only offer US dollar, they need to find out some way to handle multiple currencies ranging from dollars to pounds and etc. The way to set up the pricing schema should be decided earlier.

ii) Multiple Languages
Basically, grammatical rules may be differ from different country. For example, British English and America English is totally different. The catalogue created by Boo.com doesn't take this issue into consideration.

iii) Front End is not technology
This is the main reason that can explain why Boo.com will be closed down. Front-end team should be the first to report to business development and marketing. A web-site is just an interface design, no matter how nice is it, it is not a marketing exercise. Boo.com should have be hired staff that expert in marketing also but not only people who knows how to desgin webpage.
There is people critics that : No matter how good your backend system are, the users will only remember your front end. Fail there and you will fail.

Reference:

Learning from the largest European dot-com failureContext. 17 June 2009, from http://www.davechaffey.com/E-commerce-Internet-marketing-case-studies/Boo.com-case-study
Strom, D. (2000). Lessons learned from the demise of Boo.com, 17 June 2009, from http://www.strom.com/awards/199.html

Nic3 tO m33t u~~

2009-06-13T11:30:00.002+08:00

Nice to meet u!!… This is my first time blogging. First of all, I would like to intro myself. My name is Pong Zi Kang, you can call me Gary as well. I am now 22 years old and was an undergraduate accounting student in Utar Sungai long. My Hobby is play basketball, read comic, watch movie… and so on. Haha… Wan to know more about me?? Please update my blog more!!!

Am i cute enough to attract you all ???

How I pass my free time?? Of course is net surfing!!
Ok, let me intro a few website to u guys.

1) www.facebook.com
I like this website the most! Why?? Because I can know more friends and the most important factor is that I can update their latest news by viewing their profile and uploaded photo.

2) http://www.hotmail.com/
Usually I use this website to check my mail. My friend always send me many funny and meaningful e-mail. I like it very much. While I am doing assignment, i usually use hotmail to send or exchange important information.

3) http://www.sinchew.com/
Now a day student seldom read news paper. It is very important for us to update our daily issue, especially university student. Therefore I would like to recommend this website to all of you.

4) http://www.ppstream.com/
This is also one of my favorite website, it is a website where we can watch many movies and also dramas without wasting out of time waiting for download. You just need to double click the movie that u wan to watch, and wait for a few minutes for buffering. Nice website!!

5) http://www.bolgspot.com/
Well, I think this will becoming one of my favorite website. I like to read others people blog but haven tried to write myself a blog. Start from today I will try my very best to update my blog so that others can update and know more about me.

Last but not lease, thanks to those who view and read my blog, and please do leave some message and comment after you have read my blog. Have a nice day!!

Who is Yoon Yee?

2009-06-12T12:22:00.002+08:00

Who is Yoon Yee?

Yes, that skinny person inside the picture is me, Yoon Yee, or you can also call me Ika. From PeeJay, I came from a small medium family. In my family, I am 3th of 4 siblings. At our tutorial group, I am the oldest 1 / or should I say the most mature 1? Haha… not sure about that! Well, I am a chocoholic and my favourite fruit is strawberry. Basically, which girl can resist the temptation of these delicious things?

Currently studying with these three guys in a same tutorial group, fortunately we are assigned to do this blog together. Not bad right for us as amateur blogger?! haha…

My hobbies? Studying? Reading? Singing? No… not really what I like to do. During my free time, I will probably go for a movie. Or shopping also can.

My top 5 visited websites kick off with http://www.facebook.com/. It is the current most popular social networking site around the globe for everyone to social. What I like the most is I get to see what going on for my friends; we can easily view their daily photo. It keeps me up to date of themJ. Besides, various interesting games can we play here, nice way to keep me relax and refresh from time to time.

Follow by http://www.chinapress.com/ my like-est website to read news. I strongly agree that as a uni student we should never ignore current issues happened around us. No matter how busy tired sleepy of me, must click this web before I go to bed.

After that is http://www.988.com.my/. It is a local radio station web. Where I can stream the station and listen to those funny interesting show. Also not to miss out the latest song they play always.

I log in to http://www.hotmail.com/ to check my mail. It is fun where can see a lot of weird things from the forward E-mail.

Last but not least is http://wble.utar.edu.my/ simply because I need to contact my thesis supervisors and many lecturers and tutors.

Well, a brief intro of myself in this entry. Do visit this blog more often as I promise I will share more interesting info with you all. Cheers~

C.S.A story

2009-06-11T21:40:00.002+08:00

Blog~ finally I found a purpose to write blog. To practice E- commerce!

It does not mean I hate blog; I actually do like to read others people blog to see what others Homo sapiens doing in this world. (Not stalking yah!)

Oh yah my name is Sheng Ann, still very young currently, 20. Will be turn to 21 in August 28th 2009. Now that you see the date, make sure you do something! Joking joking

That's me ,

cool right ?

No pass my free time i like to surf internet! My top 5 visit websites are:

http://www.lifehacker.com/
Yah! I know most of the people well presume this is a website to learn hacking, unfortunately it is not. This is a website that update about technology stuffs. It keeps me alert with what going on in technology and IT stuffs.

http://www.soccernet.espn.go.com/
This is a news site about football world. I don’t play football but I think I know pretty much things in football!

http://www.livescore.com/
If I am not sitting at mamak stall watching football, I would probably sit in front my pc to check live result from this site.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/
Where you can get fresh and hot news!

http://www.wble.utar.edu.my/
Since it is my uni official website, it is compulsory for us to visit it always to check update by tutors and lecturers.

So there go my 1st hobby.

My second hobby is chit chatting via msn. In fact, my 1st thing to do when I start up my pc is sign in to my msn account immediately. I am not a busybody, I am just caring. lol!
Like every average teenagers, I think we all like movie and music. Yes! I am not exempted for this as well!

Hmm…anything else? Yah remember to read my blog often, it will benefit you!

About Me ~ Gary Choo Wai Kit

2009-06-08T15:06:00.002+08:00

Erm ,
actually i don't really feel comfortable to write blog in English ,
and i know i ready to accept this challenge !

First of all ,
I'm Gary Choo Wai Kit from Klang, Selangor
after 56 days ,
my age will be 21 ,
so i think you all should know when is my birthday ,
waiting for your present ^^

Sometimes ,
people will say me look 25 or 26 years old ,
but they are peoples who say I'm look like 17 or 18 years old .
So ,
i would like to share my photo with all of you ,
so please leave some comment ,
am i look older than i suppose to be ,
or
i look younger than what i am now ?

When I free ,
i will listen to music .
The reason i like to listen music is not because i want to relaks,
it's because i will do some video editing and organize some activities oftenly ,
that is why i need a lot of music ,
when i listen to music ,
i will categories them so that i will be more easy for me when i need music for different purpose !
I don't really like outdoor activity and sports ,
that's why i'm not tall ...
sad :(

After i finish my class in Uni ,
sure i will online at condo.

There are few website that i will visit when i turn on my laptop:

i) www.wretch.cc/blog/choogary
This is my personal blog ,
i will post up interesting incident and share with my other friend ,
feel free to visit it too ^^

ii) www.wretch.cc/blog/j92j
This is my best friend blog ,
i sure will visit his blog everyday ,
sometimes i will visit it 3-5 times a day ,
just to know what happen to him because he don't have good mood recently ,
so i try my best to comfort him !

iii) http://www.hotmail.com/
I've got a lot of nice friend ,
they will send me a lot of good mail to me ,
i will receive around 15 mails per day.

iv) http://www.jingcao.net/
Few months ago,
i helped a secondary school to organize a camp ,
this is their society forum.
Before this ,
i don't like to go visit forum ,
but this forum attract me because their topic is interesting ,
not same with those forum that i know previously.

v) http://www.irc2u.com/
I just join as their member recently ,
the reason i join is because i want to earn some poket money ,
so i will visit it few times a day to check whether my downline has recruit any new member or not.
If they had recruit new member ,
i will get money !

Usually ,
when i online ,
i will sign in to MSN messenger to chat with my friend ,
some of my friend are in oversea now ,
so i might use webcam to chat with them .

Besides that ,
as what i mentioned just now ,
i sure will check my mail,
I will download the mail if i think that it is useful for me to organize activity in the future.

After that ,
i will log in to my personal blog and see whether there is anyone leave comment ,
then i will reply them !
After i reply them ,
i will visit my other friends blog and see what happen to them recently.

If I still got time ,
i will visit forum to update my information .

Last ,
i will watch movie through PPS ,
but if i in Sg Long i cannot do so because the line will be very lag since my house got 7 more people using the same line .

That's all about me ^^
Visit this blog always ya !