The evolution of e-commerce

Further to my blog yesterday, I would like to follow this path to share more about the development of e-commerce. Probably, everyone can get the meaning of “e-commerce” from Wikipedia or any other online knowledge bases over the Internet. The growth of e-commerce is highly related to the changes of the infrastructures of e-systems.

Nowadays, e-commerce has extended to various media. We can basically do business transactions through our mobile devices as the wireless networks like Wi-Fi, WiMax, 3G or even 4G and mobile devices are very well-developed.Therefore, it comes up with so-called M-commerce, T-commerce, U-commerce and so on.

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (2008) illustrated M-commerce very well with examples below. However, it also mentioned other concerns the consumers need to consider.

Using your mobile phone to buy products and services is becoming a part of everyday life. Examples of this kind of trade—sometimes called m-commerce—include voting for reality TV shows, downloading ring tones and paying for car parking, and airline and concert tickets.

While using your phone in this way can be fun and convenient, there can be risks. To avoid them, you need to understand the costs and conditions of any products or services you buy.

Amazon Mobile, launched earlier this week, allows consumers to search for items on Amazon.com, update their shopping carts and wish lists, and make purchases from their iPhones.We can find many other ecommerce businesses over the internet.

Like HSBC ebanking, it offers the mobile mode, clients can use their mobile to access the ebanking services.

Many teens really enjoy downloading music or videos from the internet. Apple targets this market and successfully launched their products and services such iPod, iPhone, iTune and... They can shop through the Apple websites http://www.apple.com/.

Mobile games are very hot to young consumers. They download the games from the mobile games websites. Alternatively, they can actually subscribe the online games services. For example, "EVE Online" provides many different multiplayer games.

For adults, Britannica Online Encyclopedia is a paid service. You can get to its information by subscription. http://www.britannica.com/

References

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission 2008, Shopping on your mobile (m-commerce), Commonwealth of Australia, viewed 23 April, 2009, <http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/266899>.

Meisner, J 2009, ‘New App Lets iPhone Users Photo Shop Amazon’, Ecommerce Times, Mobile Apps, viewed 23 April, 2009, <http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/65390.html?wlc=1240476927>.