History and Evolution of E-commerce

Definition of Electronic Commerce

Electronic Commerce(EC) is the manner in which transactions take place over networks, mostly the Internet. It is the process of electronically buying and selling goods, services and information. Certain EC applications, such as buying and selling stocks and airline tickets on the internet, are growing very rapidly, exceeding non-Internet trades.

EC is not just about buying and selling, it also is about electronically communicating, collaborating and discovering information. EC will have an impact on a significant portion of the world, affecting businesses, professions, and of course, people.

History and Evolution of E-Commerce

Originally, e-commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) in year 1970 which allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. In year 1980s, the development and acceptance of automated teller machine (ATM) and credit cards were the types of e-commerce. However, in 1990s, the Enterprise resource planning system (ERP), data warehousing and data mining were also included in e-commerce. When the Web first became well-known among the general public in 1994, many journalists and pundits forecast e-commerce would soon become a major economic sector. However, it took about four years for security protocols (like HTTPS) to become sufficiently developed and widely deployed. Subsequently, between 1998 and 2000, a substantial number of businesses in the United States and Western Europe developed rudimentary web sites. Recently, the E-commerce was being defined as the process buying and selling over the Internet using electronic payment services.

Timeline

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

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

1995 - Two biggest names in e-commerce are launched which is Amazon.com and eBay.com.

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

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

2000 - The dot-com bust.

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

Relater Link:

http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/E-Commerce