World of E-commerce

After Graduated

2011-10-20T15:04:00.002+08:00

It's been almost one and a half year since I graduated from University. I think it's been 3 years since I last blog in World of E-Commerce.

Working life is not as tough as studying in University for me. Maybe because I am naturally borned lazy or I am dumb that University life isn't my cup of tea. I get to earn money using my flesh and hardwork, I gained satisfaction as I don't have to use money from home to support my living. I also get the feelings of accomplishment while finish my daily work without having to postpone my job to the next day.

Working has to be very high EQ, knows how to dealt with people. I think it will be a very long way for me I think maybe I got to learn it from the hard way then I will only understand how to fit in to this cruel reality world.

For me, I don't mind when the pay is low as long as I can learn something which will be useful for my future development. What's more, I was just a fresh grade, and bargaining isn't my priority and my strength. The other important thing for me a work is that my boss can appreciate me for what I had done.

My first job is in I think 6 years ago, that was even before I had enrolled in university. My boss knows how to appreciate me but sadly I wasn't being able to stay for long as for my future, I should go for further study in order to survice in this country.

My second job, one year ago I was recruit by a legal firm. The second boss who hire me is a good person but sadly he has no power over the firm and what he tells the big boss, big boss will just follow his way and make everyone else looked transparent or non-existhen.

My colleagues told me our big boss is very nice before his daughter joined this company. I agreed to her as working in there for a year has make me realize that egoism can make people loss themselves and eventually loss the respect from everyone else. It not that kind of firm that people can work for very long unless our boss or the daughter is fond of them. Yeah, I am not the kind of person who know what the boss want and will go for it. If it's my mistake I will admit and find a solution for it instead of covering up or frame other people. But sadly, my big boss and especially her daughter, loved it.

Knowing that there'll be no future for me in the firm, I decided to move on. It quite sad and nervous after you resign but you haven't found a new job. Now my third job, it's not a large firm as it was only a small subsidiary, but I was happy working for the firm as here, people appreciate me for what I had done, yeah as usual nothing is perfect, there's not much to learn here but out of there appreciated and the gratedute that I had for my manager I won't simply unless if I were ask to.

E-world had really change almost everyone's lifestyle. Now world is all about E and globalisation has bring all of us together that everyday I can speak to people around the world within the same company just with one click away.

Review on AirAsia.com

2009-07-10T14:35:00.007+08:00

I'm sure you all know about the AirAsia.com. It is a website of Airasia that provide airline service. From the website, you can straight away book the air ticket online and no need go to the counter to buy the air ticket. It is very convenient and save time to book the air ticket online.

Language and Country Choose
First you come to the website, there are two column for you to choose the your departure country and the language. It ease the work to find the translate version by first giving the customers to choose their familiar language. Beside that, choose the departure country from the first into the website will make sure the customers make the right flight booking.

Search Engine
There is a search engine inside Airasia website. With the help of search engine, you just need to fill up the the place you want to take the flight, the destination, how many people, one way trip or return, and the result will come out with a click on "search". That would be easy and convenient in helping customers to find out the flight they wish to book and take a quick look on the ticket fare that they may wish to compare the difference with other airline company.

Advertisements
If there is any promotion on the ticket fare, an advertisement will be post on the home page of Airasia.com. The customers may easy to notice the advertisement and click on the advertisement to find out what is on promotion. Customers may be attracted by the advertisement and book the air ticket to go on the holidays.

Company Information
In the Airasia.com, it also provides company information. Customers can find out more about the company's background, investor relations and even their blog from the website. Customers may feel more rest assure with more knowledge about the company. Besides that, it also provides a portal for those who has the interest to work in Airasia.

Other Services
There are also some other services in the Airasia.com. For example, customers also can book the hotel with together the air ticket, product and shopping service, travel service and others.

To find out more service in Airasia.com, you should click on the link and take a look now.

A discussion on E-Learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the students prespective.

2009-07-09T19:44:00.005+08:00

E-Learning (or Electronic learning or eLearning), defined in Wikipedia, is a term for all types of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), where technology is used to support the learning process. In Malaysia, E-Learning had been introduced by universities such as UTM (University Technology Malaysia) and MMU (Multimedia University). From the students’ perspective, e-learning provides pros and cons:

Pros:
(a) Convenience and flexibility to learners
E-Learning is self-paced and the learning sessions are available 24x7. Learners are not bound to a specific day/time to physically attend classes. They can also pause learning sessions at their convenience.

(b) Reducing environmental impact
E-Learning allows people to avoid travel expenses. It provides a virtual environment and helpful in reduce the usage of paper. With virtual notes instead of paper notes, eLearning is a more environmentally friendly solution.

(c) Affordable education
E-learning can drastically reduce the costs of higher education, making it much more affordable and accessible to the students. An internet connection, a computer, and a projector would allow an entire classroom in a third world university to benefit from the knowledge of a distant instructor.

Cons:
(a) Technology skill required
The students without technology skill are forced to put more efforts to learn about it. Furthermore, some students may not able to switch to new e-learning environment.

(b) Lack of Human Interaction
Learning is traditionally a process of passing information from one human being to another. However, e-learning has been taken place without face to face communication. Thus, high level understanding may not reach.

(c) Lack of Motivation
E-Learning requires self-discipline for students. Some students may not able to follow the syllabus of E-Learning with poor motivation. Thus, the objective of e-learning has failed to achieve.

Conclusion
E-Learning is a good strategy for all students since its advantages greater than its disadvantages. In my opinion, there are not disadvantages for me as it depends the ways of how we use E-Learning to achieve education goals.

References:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_learning
(2) http://elearn2.utm.my/09101/file.php/1/response/index.html

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen's adoption strategies

2009-07-07T21:56:00.006+08:00

Malaysia and various countries are implementing electronic government. The implementation of E-Government was initiated by the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).

E-Government is the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to promote more efficient and effective government, facilitate more accessible government services, allow greater public access to information, and make government more accountable to citizens.

E-Government seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactive with citizens and business. The effectiveness and efficiency delivering services provided by government enable the government to become more responsive to the needs of the citizens.

There are 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application which are as follows:

1. Project monitoring system (SPP II)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. General Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
7. E-Syariah

New technologies are forcing governments to abreast to technologies in order to avoid falling behind. Challenges are facing by government to keep up with technologies. Other challenges includes lack of broadband infrastructure, low usage of Mykad beyond identity functions and etc. Not only on the introduction of MSC and ICT, government should focus on continuous technology infrastructure and maintenance and this is the basis of all electronic transactions. Information security must be strengthened as online security is very important.

Corporate Blogging: A New Marketing Communication Tool for Companies

2009-07-07T19:08:00.018+08:00

First, before introduce corporate blog; we need to know that what blog is. Blog is published on the web, it reflect the interests, thoughts and opinions of the person. Blogs are characteristized by frequent update, an informal tone and many links to other blogs and websites.

However, corporate blog is a blog published by or with the support of an organization to reach that organization's goals. In external communications the potential benefits include strengthened relationships with important target groups and the positioning of the publishing organization (or individuals within it) as industry experts. Internally blogs are generally referred to as tools for collaboration and knowledge management.

Nowadays, corporations are increasingly looking for opportunities to make them stand out to maintain a competitive edge. Although traditional media serves as a solid medium that separate company messaging to the world, the trends of information consumption are evolving. After some initial hesitancy, corporations are slowly starting to realize that it is important t

o jump on the virtual bandwagon of blogging.

There are some company which is utilizing blogging to connect with their customer such as Intel, Cicso, and HP. These companies using blog to represent of the company’s values, beliefs, philosophy and direction, such as the blog allows current and potential consumers to associate the brand with a face and a personality. It bridges the distant gap that has existed between the “inaccessible” company and the “average” consumer.

Through the corporate blog, company also can built a community of people who are interested in their products and made contacts with customers that they would never have met. Besides that, it also allows the company to share their ideas and insight into their products so that the company can architect their product solutions.

Additionally, if the company involved in a medium that encourages a two-way conversation, it shows their consumers that the company care about their opinions. There is a person noted that blogging lets them communicate with their customers in a more personal and direct way. But more importantly, blogging gives them a much needed way for customers to communicate with them. Customers are able to interact with comments and potentially provide valuable feedback or insight that can be brought back into the business.”

On the other hand, corporate blog may cause of time consuming on updated, and can lead to legal pitfalls as well. In spite of this, some people may also use it to write negatively about the company which can lead to bad publicity.

In conclusion, corporate blogging is getting important because it bringing benefits to the corporation on deliver the message privately or publicly even though there is some disadvantage that may affect the reputation of the organization.

References:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/10/15/a-guide-to-corporate-blogging/

http://www.corporateblogging.info/2004/06/corporate-blog-short-definition.asp

The potential and consumers' adoption strategies of mobile payment system in Malaysia

2009-07-03T02:23:00.010+08:00

The meaning of the mobile payment is allows you to make payments to selected merchants by using your mobile phones. As mobile payment has become more and more popular, consumer not only can pay their bill and purchase of goods and services among the cashless transactions, it also can enjoy the benefits of mobile payments by register and open an account with mobile payment service providers. But the important is your mobile phone or smart phone must provide a support for GPRS/ GSM.

First Mobile Payment System

Malaysia’s first mobile payment system was launched in lately November 2001, TeleMoney, it is the first mobile system that provide service via multi-channel access for Internet and wireless transaction. Through the TeleMoney, it can connecting to a credit card , debit card, stored valued card, bank account or even the phone account. Besides that, there is a System@Work which is offer Internet and mobile commerce services perform as a master merchant while Hong Leong Bank is acts as a settlement, clearing and payment bank for the service in Malaysia.

Beside that, some of the mobile payment system available in Malaysia is Mobile Money and SCAN's Mobile Payment System. Mobile Money is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed by Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd to address the limitations and bottlenecks created by cash, cheques and credit cards. It allows registered users to pay for goods and bills at anytime, anywhere using only a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS (Short Messaging Service) or MM ATM application. (For more details about MM ATM, please visit here)

World’s First Contactless Mobile Payment System Launches in Malaysia

In April 2009, contactless mobile payment service utilizing Near Field Communication (NFC) technology was introduced by Visa, Maybank, Maxis and Touch n' Go. And yet, Maxis has launched an integrated mobile payment service, Maxis FastTap that uses near field communication (NFC) technology.

NFC is a short-range wireless technology that allows communications between devices at close range. As an open platform technology, NFC offers high levels of interoperability between devices and readers and is now the global standard for contactless mobile payments, with a wide range of features that allows credit card, debit card, ticketing and transportation payments to be integrated into a mobile phone.

Maxis FastTap is an integrated credit card and transit payment applications on a Nokia 6212 classic device. With using Nokia 6212 classic phone, consumer enables to purchase goods and services at more than 1,800 Visa paywave merchant locations.

In conclusion, mobile payment services in fact have great potential and advantages. When a merchant has subscribed to mobile payment instead of credit card payment system, it can save more on maintenance cost and startup fee. Merchants can also make an extra sale through offline network. On the other hand, it also brings convenience to consumer such as consumer can enjoy with low-value transaction over such non-traditional means.

Electronic Currency

2009-07-02T22:21:00.007+08:00

This week I would like to introduce to you the "electronic currency". It is widely used in nowadays world. But what is electronic currency? And, what is it used for?

What is electronic currency?

Electronic currency also known as electronic money, digital money, e-money and so on. Electronic currency can only be exchanged electronically. Typically, it involves the use of Internet and digital stored value system. It is a computerized money system and use to replace the current physical paper money currency. There are some success examples of electronic currency which are implemented in Hong Kong's octopus card system and Singapore's ezlink card system.

Advantages of Using Electronic Currency

There are many advantages for using electronic currency. The first advantage, electronic currency is cheaper. It allows transactions take place at a low costs and even the most expensive digital currency cost lower than the credit card. For those transactions which have high cost previously due to time, effort, and money are now feasible by using electronic currency since it is cheaper. Besides that, the people who are using the electronic currency can make a significant savings compare to those who always use the credit card.

Another advantage is electronic currency is faster. Electronic currency make a instantaneous and nonconvertible transaction that solve the vulnerable position of the merchant since the credit card at their store can be stolen by hacker. If you want to transfer the money to your friends or family, with a few seconds the transaction is done and your friends or family can withdraw the cash from the ATM. That's fast.

Electronic Currency is international. Credit card or paypal are hard to applied in different country. Therefore, electronic currency acts an important role in helping the international enterprenuer to sell their product or service to worldwide. It is because electronic currency make an instantaneous transfer of money anywhere in the world with the easily and quick convert to the cash of any country.

Issues of Electronic Currency

Eventhough, there are many advantages that provided by electronic currency, but still there are some issues that arise from electronic currency such as how to levy tax, the possible ease of money laundering, exchange rate instabilities and shortage of money supplies.

Future Evolution

The future focus of the electronic currency developement are:

Being able to use it through a wider range of hardware such as secured credit cards
Linked bank accounts that would generally be used over an internet means, for exchange with a secure micropayment system such as in large corporations

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

2009-06-30T23:43:00.004+08:00

The pre-paid cash card is more or less the same look like credit cards or debit cards and they offered the same ability to purchase products and services. The difference between pre-paid cash card and debit cards or credit cards is that pre-paid cash card can only spend the balance that was preloaded onto the card.

For example, Touch'n Go provide a standard card Touch 'n Go cards which fare structure currently available for adult fare for standard class vehicles .

Since there is no credit or overdraft facility, there is no risk of running into debt using pre-paid cash card, especially for those who lack of discipline of the know-how sense to manage their money. Pre-paid cash card is a good way to control yourself and budget for spending.

With a pre-paid cash card, those wih poor credit or too little money to meet bank's minimum account balance requirement can participate in the retail transaction. Tips for pre-paid cash card user is that before using pre-paid cash card, make sure to know your current balance before you shop, make note of your pre-paid cash card's account number and custormer service number and keep it in a safe place.

Pre-paid cash card can topping up your mobile phone, paying bills, internet shopping, do it as a replacement for travellers cheques, buying groceries and petrol and even going for travel.

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention.

2009-06-29T02:53:00.006+08:00

Most of the banks encourage their customers to take their issued credit card to make transactions. The credit card is so convenience that owners no need to pay immediately while purchasing and pay at the end of the month. Credit card debt occurred when the owner using credit card to make purchase.

In year 2006, there are 700 thousand Taiwanese unable to pay their credit card debt, NT$ 1 million for each people. This happen indicated that the credit card debts were a serious issue for all credit card owners.

Encouragement from Banks
Most of the banks issue lot of credit cards for their customers. Banks always encourage consumers to make transaction via their credit cards. All these cause credit card holders increased dramatically.

Poor finance management
There is so convenience to purchase by using future money without developing any plan. Thus, people keep purchasing and do not aware of amount of their spending. Therefore people realized that they are carrying a huge debt after receiving monthly statement.

Cycle effect
Rely on financial income is the main way for people to pay their debts. After paying for the debts, the remaining incomes are most likely to enough for daily use. Therefore people will continually use credit card and fall into a cycle of creating and paying of credit card debts.

Once the debts excess their income, the interest of debts or late payment charges are coming. These extra charges make the debts larger, like snow ball effect. People are work to pay for debts and it’s never end.

Finally, there were so many people were filed for bankruptcy after they faced economy crisis, inflation, recession or unemployment.

To prevent credit card debts affect our life, there are some suggestion as below:-

Budget planning
Planning own spending can helps people to manage their own finance. It is always a good practice to create a budget to limit spending by using credit card. With the budget, people are able to learn self-control from consuming and able to overcome their debts. Thus, huge debts would not be created.

Downsize credit limit
People should not always think about there is good to have an unlimited credit card. In order to prevent non-payable credit debts, people should dealing with their creditors to downsizing their credit limit. People are then limited to spending.

Critical Thinking
Each people are advised to have only one or two main credit cards. People are always like to have as many credit cards as possible to express their financial position to others. Furthermore, people always like to use various credit cards to make transaction with low credit limit. These will increase the complexity of financial management and also the charges of cards.

Conclusion

Credit cards are giving us many conveniences to use credit money to purchase something. It provides many positive impacts for our life. However, it could also bring many and serious negative impacts to us if we without appropriate and correct prospective on using credit cards.

References:
(1) http://www.mozdex.com/prevent-credit-card-debt/

(2)http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/145666/debts_loans/debt_prevention_and_management.html

(3) http://www-creditcarddebt.com/credit-card-debt-law/arlington-va-bankruptcy-lawyer-bankruptcy-abuse-prevention-178.php

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

2009-06-26T14:20:00.004+08:00

In our information explosion era, the threat of online security had become a more and more serious problem, internet users getting information or data online. People and people conducting business online are getting more and more concern now on How Safe is our Data. We store our photo, personal information, banking account and etc in our computer, will outsiders being able to hack in and steal our data and take advantages out of it? We have to take care about that.

Internet users display more and more their personal information on web sites has created the environment of exploiting the users on a situation of disposing their data or information to others and others might misuse, damage the information. Most people do not really understand that they can protect their security online by taking reasonable steps. Computer security had played a significant role in protecting our data from misuse or damage.

The major online security threats nowadays includes accidental actions, malicious attacks, online fraud, phishing, network attacks like computer virus, worms, trojan horses and even back doors. I will explain some of it here.
For example, accidental actions which indicate problems arising from basic lack of knowledge about online security concepts and includes poor password choices, accidental disclosure and outdated software. Online fraud is internet transactions that involve falsified information such as fake IDs, certificate and recommendation letters.

In conclusion, computer security must be able to keep up with increasing sophisticated method that are using by computer hacker to keep us away from exploiting our data to others and to reduce the online security threats.

The application of third party certification programme in Malaysia

2009-06-25T17:01:00.011+08:00

Nowadays, in the internet world has arise many unsecured website that which provide various kind of business such as online purchasing, online payment using credit card, but, is it safety for our customer for using these infrastructure?

The answer is yes, it is safety, although fraud and identity theft have created a chilling effect on e-commerce. However the network now, the local organization has promoted some products and services to protect the security of the customer.

To gain the trust of online customer, secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate can fulfill the customer security. In Malaysia, there is a company called MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd is a third party certification programme.

MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd is a licensed of Certificate Authority (CA) operating within the Multimedia Super Corridor, it was incorporated in 1999. Trustgate is licensed under the Digital Signature Act 1997, is a Malaysia law that sets a global precedent for the mandate of Certificate Authority. The core business of Trustgate’s is to provide digital certificate services, including digital certificates, cryptographic products, and software development. The vision of the Trustgate is “To enable organizations to conduct their business securely over the Internet, as much as what they have been enjoying in the physical world.” Besides that, Trustgate provide trust and encryption technology to secure customer online communication, hence protect the vital business information from interfere.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a protocol developed by Netscape in 1996 which was quickly adopted around the world as the method of choice for securing data transmissions across the Internet. SSL is an integral part of virtually all web browsers and web servers and makes use of a public-and-private key encryption system originally developed by RSA.

In order to establish an SSL connection, the SSL protocol requires that a server have a digital certificate installed. A digital certificate is an electronic file that uniquely identifies individuals and servers. Digital certificates allow the client (Web browser) to authenticate the server prior to establishing the SSL session. Normally, digital certificates are signed by an independent and trusted third party to ensure their validity. The "signer" of a digital certificate is known as a Certification Authority (CA), such as VeriSign.

Customer enables the use of SSL at your Web site by obtaining and installing an SSL certificate. When a browser connects via "https" to a Web site with an SSL certificate, the browser and the server will exchange information during what is called the "SSL handshake." Once the SSL session has been negotiated, all information that passes between the browser and the server will be encrypted.

As well as the VeriSign Secured Seal is a trust mark available for display on any Web site that protects its customers' confidential information using VeriSign services. The VeriSign Secured Seal indicates to online shoppers and other site visitors that organization has chosen the very best SSL and/or payment processing solution to help protect their credit cards and other confidential information via specifically designed and tested for its communication value,.

Furthermore, the Trustgate also provide other services such as Secure Server ID, Global Server ID, Mykad ID, Personel ID, Managed PKI, MyTrust, SSL VPN, Managed Security Services, VeriSign Certified Training and Application Development.

In conclusion, Trustgate is a organization that we can trust, it not only can restore the confidence of the customer, it also enhance the business transaction through the internet and we should let more people know about the Trustgate, because it enables every visitor in the world to safely exchange sensitive information.

If you are interested to know more about, you can refer to the following link:

http://www.msctrustgate.com/

eBay Phishing and Its Prevention Method

2009-06-24T15:27:00.009+08:00

In these recent years, phishing is quite popular in e-commerce world. Many people lose their personal information due to "phishing". But, what is phishing? How does phishing actually happen? And, how to prevent it?

What is Phishing?

Phishing means that an intentional acquiring of other people's personal or sensitive information by acting as a business or individual. Usually, scammers will aim their target to obtain username and password on certain website such as bank, ebay and etc.

Phishing actually can be called a synonym to actual fishing. Why? Since scammers will acts as the representative of a company and send an email to try to get the personal and private information. This situation is quite similar with fishing. The scammers throw in the baits and you are the fish if you eat the baits by giving them your username and password.

How Do Scammers Phish?

PayPal and eBay were two of the earliest targets of phishing scams.

Scammers will phish for username and password to enter into the account. By using the ID, they sell fake or non-exist goods. They use the eBay's ID which have positive feedback to scam other people.

Message from member

The scammer will use message from eBay's member as masquerade. When you click respond, it will link to a faked website and when you enter your personal information into that website, they will be able to obtain it. This kind of message normally come in different style and writing.

Another method is using javascript to scam user's personal information. This method is the most clever scams. Scammers can manipulate the javascript and it is hard to recognize whether it is a scam. Normally, they use fake feedback to make buyers believe that they have high reputation in selling their goods. eBay does a lot of prevention to avoid scammers but they can still find their new way around it. So, do watch out when shopping in eBay.

Prevention

To prevent you get scammed in eBay, you must first:

Check the goods the seller sold, if unrelated goods are now selling by his ID, he might be the victim of phishing.
Remember, eBay or Bank will never acquire your personal information by send an email to you.
Enter the email address manually, if eBay or Bank has sent you a important notice.

Besides that, for those who using the Firefox browser, there is an addon called "iTrustpage" which is an anti-phish tools that prevent users to access to a suspicious website.

At the end, I have to say that phishing is now all over e-commerce world, so be careful when buying something from the website. Don't make yourself become a fish by eating the bait that scammers throw in!

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

2009-06-22T21:45:00.007+08:00

The advancement of information technology (IT) makes privacy data being exposed to the public easier than before. Thus, there were so many people had become victims that their confidential data was stolen for unauthorized or illegal purpose. Hence, safeguard of personal and financial data has become an important issue for public now.

Here are the suggestions to safeguard our data:

Avoid to access own privacy data in public
Users are advice not to access own privacy data in public such as cyber café and restaurant by using provided computers. It is because these computers may unsafe for users as it may contain some software (Key-logger or Trojan) to obtain user’s data.

Users should also sign out owns account after they are finish visiting the website such as facebook and hotmail to avoid other user can access their account.

Enhance own computer’s security
Firewall, anti-virus software and password are useful to guard your computer information from the nefarious. User should always update their firewall in order to make it able to block hacker’s unauthorized access. User ought to purchase and install anti-virus software such as Kaspersky, and update it as it helps detect and delete all the Trojan, worms and malicious programs that threat users’ privacy.

It is always a good practice to keep a login password for owns computer as this helps to prevent anybody from intruding into computer when it's left unattended. Besides that, strengthen your security by choosing a password that is a composition of numbers and alphabets. (For example: 2W7Vf9dR54)

Be vigilant while using internet
Try not to visit those unfamiliar web site that those site which been warned by our anti-virus or browser (Firefox). These sites may contain down loadable malicious programs which hided in the some file which user do not know. Not to download unknown programs from the internet is encouraged since it may contain malware.

Internet users likely enter into a phishing web by clicking the hyperlink that provided in web pages. Therefore, always be vigilant on the hyperlink provided by web pages in order to avoid phishing fraud as financial information and passwords will be scamming.

Users are strongly encouraged to delete cookies, temporary internet files and caches that compromise owns privacy after internet activities. Furthermore, user should not allow browser or web-tools to remember the personal data as this action increases the risk to user.

Review monthly financial statement
Review monthly financial statements not only will alert people to possible fraudulent transactions or charges, this may also helps in finding legitimate charges for services that are either redundant or unnecessary.

Change password frequently
Users are encouraged to change password for every period of time such as one month. Changing password can helps to safeguard users’ personal and financial data.

Conclusion
As an Internet user, we should have the common knowledge on how to preventing Internet scam. The fraud and scam cases are increasing every year, our government should education Malaysian on how to prevent those scam before it’s happened. In additional, we should not too depending on the antivirus that it is not the sufficient strategy to protect our financial data especially the bank account since the hacker and cracker still able to break those anti viruses.

References:
(1) http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/general/2006/09/23/safeguard-your-financial-life.aspx
(2) http://www.isnare.com/?aid=375385&ca=Finances
(3) http://www.internationalsos.com/en/privacy.htm

Identify and Compare Revenue Model for Google, Amazon.com and eBay

2009-06-18T14:39:00.020+08:00

A revenue model reveal how an organization or the Electronic Commerce project will generate revenue. They generated revenue by sales, transaction fees, subscription fees, advertising fees, affiliate fees, and from other revenue sources.

Google has made its fortune by using advertising revenue and global internet search solutions like companies charge others for allowing them to place a banner on their sites. Its principal products and services include Google Adwords and Google Adsense. Google AdWords is a pay per click advertising program which allowed the advertisers to present advertisements to people at the instant the people are looking for information related to what the advertiser has to offer.Google AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Revenue is generated on a per-click or per-thousand-ads-displayed basis and the ads are administered by Google. On each time a user clicks on one of their ads displayed on the web sites, the Google advertisers are required to pay the Google fees.

Amazon.com is the first major company sells goods by internet which the Amazon is completely e-commerce company. Buyers can buy new and used items sold directly by a third party through Amazon.com using amazon marketplace. Amazon.com charges a commission rate based on the sale price, a transaction fee, and a variable closing fee. Amazon.com is using online sales as their revenue from selling merchandise or service over their web sites.

eBay is the world’s largest online auction site. With eBay, all revenue roads lead to seller fees. eBay is an online auction and shopping web site that the people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. eBay's revenue increases with seller surplus. eBay is using transaction fees which is commissions paid on volume of transactions. The higher the volume, the higher the transaction fees will be.

We can say that Google, Amazon and eBay are the most successful e-commerce companies in the world. As for comparison, the revenue models for Google mainly is advertising, transaction fees which is commissions is for eBay and gaining revenue from sales of goods or services is for Amazon.com.

How Do eBay Success?

2009-06-17T21:50:00.022+08:00

I think all of you is quite familiar with eBay. eBay is the world's largest trading community where you can either buying or selling product online. But, how do eBay actually success in e-commerce site?

There are few components push eBay to success.

Online Auction In Ebay
eBay have an online auction function which let buyers to bid on the product. People really enjoy the experience of the shopping bazaar. They enjoy the hunt. They enjoy looking around for merchandise and they really enjoy the competition of the bidding process. The buyers can stay at home and shop whatever they want. Besides that, they can sell their unwanted product on eBay by opening an eBay shop. It is easy and convenient for buyers and sellers to having an bargain in eBay.

Search Engine In Ebay
There are millions of product for sale in eBay. So, a good search engine is one of the component that result a success for eBay. The search engine gives convenience to buyer and seller to find the specific information in eBay as soon as possible. There is a column called "categories" beside the search engine and it will find the information according to the categories that user choose. It will ease the work to find the result. The "Advanced search" tool allows you to search by price, certain sellers, item location, items in certain conditions and much more, which can be very useful. As with most eBay pages, the page is well laid out, so it is extremely easy to perform an advanced search with over one million items being sold on eBay at one time, it is very important to be able to navigate through them easily. People like convenient, so Ebay success in attracting people to keep on with the eBay website.

Wide Range of Products

eBay deals with a wide range of products, even anything from collecting baseball cards to toy soldiers to Barbie dolls to doll houses, and so forth. It allows people to often time connect with some very fond and special early childhood memories. Besides that, it allows people to shop at one time and no need waste their time in searching the shop that providing for the specific goods. With one click, they should able to find the product that according to their needs. So, they like eBay since a wide range of products are provided.

After of all, eBay is quite success in e-commerce site since it is easy and clean to use. That's why people like eBay and spend a lot time in eBay website. So, what are you waiting for? Just go and find out eBay now!

An example of an E-Commerce failure and its causes

2009-06-17T20:17:00.011+08:00

What is eToys.com?

eToys is the popular e-commerce site that sells toys. It launched in 1997. It emphasis on toys and it aims to sell parents several of things that their children might want or need. It was selling children's books, videos, music, and software, as well as toys via internet.

eToys had a highly successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 1999. Shares issued at $20 rose to $76 on the first day of trading. At its peak, the company was valued at more than $8 billion. E-marketer was once quoted as saying; "Put simply, eToys is the benchmark against which all other toy sites are measured."

Ethical issue and Lawsuit against eToy.com
In late 1999, eToys attempted to buy eToy.com as it was confusingly similar to its own domain. etoy turned down the offer, so on November 29, 1998, eToys obtained a court injunction preventing etoy from operating a website at www.etoy.com. To obtain the injunction, eToys told the judge that etoy.com was confusing customers, and furthermore that it contained pornography and calls to violence.

In response to eToys' greedy and unethical conduct, a team of toy designers invented the etoy Fund online game which realistic intent was to make eToys' stock value go as far down in value as possible. The eToy Fund's fast and furious action and thrilling multi-user game play set thousands of users' hearts pounding as they helped to lower the value of eToys stock by using many methods.

The eToys' stock value falls dramatically from year 1998 to 1999. So on December 29, 1999, eToys made an announcement about that they had decided to give up this unpopular dispute and fight. However, it was not true that eToys stop the lawsuit. Furthermore, its stock value dropped to 9 cents per share in February 2001.

Terrible negligence on service
etoys.com decided to use a third party, Fingerhut, in order to fulfill lots of orders for the 1999 Christmas season. However, eToys.com failed to achieve one of its initial goals: speedy and reliable. Thousands of customers complained that their orders were either late in arriving at their destination or contained the wrong merchandise. This event had seriously destroyed the first image of eToys for new customers and impairs its goodwill.

Wrong strategy against Competitive Environment
Unfortunately, eToys went into another market battle while Toys 'R' Us and Amazon.com were forming a partnership in August 2000. Etoys.com faced a strong competitor during the 2000 holiday shopping season. Thus, eToys’ customers were reduced. Nevertheless, eToys.com adopted a strategy to offer more products that beyond their primary production line, Toys.

Failed in forecasting
In order to avoid the shipping missteps of 1999, the company spent heavily to build two large warehouses to handle inventory and delivery. However, the total $ 120 million income of sales for the 2000 season was just half of the company’s expectation. Short of money and other funding options exhausted, eToys.com filed for bankruptcy finally in March 2001.

List of top 10 failure on E-commerce: Click here.

References:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_Public_Offering
(2) http://www.rtmark.com/etoy.html
(3) http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/12/33330
(4) http://www.etoy.com/
(5) http://www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html

History&Evolution of E-commerce

2009-06-16T00:19:00.001+08:00

In this week, I would like to blog about the history and the evolution of e-commerce. As we know, e-commerce describes the process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, and information via computer networks.

In 1960’s，a technology such as Electronic Data Interchange(EDI) and Electronic Fund Transfer(EFT) has been introduced to conduct a electronic transaction. However in 1979, the American National Standards Institute , they using ASC X12 to share the business document over electronic networks. Mosaic was the first point and click web browser which was developed in the year 1992.

In the early 1990’s, e-commerce was not even half popular as it is today and only few people understood how e-commerce went on. People started understand that opening a store meant renting a shop, buying product and business equipment, employ workers, paying the sale tax and buying a service that provide customer to pay using credit card. Since the e-commerce was being introduced, launching an online store today means pretty much save cost contrast to traditional commerce. Although the World Wide Web was introduced in 1990, it took about five years to introduce security protocols and DSL allowing continual connection to the internet

E-commerce has become fully evolved as the government has involved in the e-commerce, thus making the consumer not only comfortable, but also willing to share private information, financial, personal, and banking information over the internet. Most businesses have resulted in going online in transacting their businesses. The e-commerce strategy has really helped people to start their own business entity without any much expense.

Furthermore, Web2.0 as refer to second generation of web development and web design should be integrated into e-commerce website this is because Web2.0 sites often feature rich, user-friendly interface based on Ajax and is web-as participation-platform instead of web-as-information-source as Web1.0. It also helpful and bring convenient to the customer and businesses.

In conclusion, the territory of e-commerce did not actually spring up overnight. To success in the e-commerce, there must be some needs of the ever-changing marketplace, development of software and collaborations with others to deliver value that is evolved through trial and error but not the individual efforts nor experience.

Qoo is blogging? ^^

2009-06-10T00:31:00.023+08:00

Hello everyone, my name is Ng Shat Qin, or you can call me “Qoo” which is my nickname.I come from a small village where it is at Simpang Pulai, Ipoh Perak. I am the eldest in the family and currently taking accounting course at University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). In my course, I am in tutorial group four.

My hobbies are playing badminton , listening music, and watching movie, especially foreign movie, from my view, foreign movie is some how interesting than local movie, isn't it? The website I had visited most is facebook. Facebook is very similar to friendster, but it provide more entertainments and more connectivity among your friends, especially those friends who have been long time no contact.

Beside that, I am also interested in forum based website such as http://forum.i-alien.net/, http://www.jbtalks.cc/index.php. These kind of websites provide various kind of information that are useful to me sometimes. Furthermore, I do like to visit either my friend or stranger blog, I found out that when reading their story, I get to know my friend better and we do have more topic to talk about when meet!

Well, this is the first time using English to write blog and it is for assignment purpose, haha.. I wonder if I will need a translator tool when blogging here. Anyway, I am willing to learn and share my knowledge to all reader of this blog here although I am not an expert. ^o^

Last but not least, I would like to thanks my friends who have giving a hand in the setup of this blog and wish that our blog will be useful for others. TQ.

New Trying in Blogging...

2009-06-09T16:06:00.027+08:00

Hi, all~
Firstly, let me have a briefly self-introducing.
My name is Lee Shi Xuan, you can just call me sxuan and I'm sure I will answer you. I come from a small village in Johor. I have father, mother and two elder brothers. I'm studying in University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Sg.Long and I'm an accounting student.

I have a lot of hobbies, such as playing computer games, listen to music and others. I likes music very much and I can't live without music. Don't you think this world will become boring if without music?

Besides that, I'm interested in browsing website, like playing games in Facebook(http://www.facebook.com/), watching some funny videos in Youtube(http://www.youtube.com/), reading e-news in Sin Chew Daily(http://www.sinchew.com.my/), reading e-mail that sent by friends or family by Hotmail(http://www.hotmail.com/) or finding something new in Google(http://www.google.com/).

I'm not the 1st time to write a blog or to create a blog. I think it is quite easy for me. In fact, I have to say this is the new trying for me to write a blog in ENGLISH and it is for assigment purpose. But, I like this kind of assignment, since I'm interested to do it.

For me, E-commerce makes our life easier since we can shopping any time, anywhere. But still, we have to learn more about the other areas of E-commerce that we don't know, such as the threat of online shopping, the history of E-commerce, failure and success of E-commerce, and so on. These knowledge are important to prevent us to get cheated when we are involved in E-commerce.

Lastly, our blog will eventually introduce e-commerce for you all although we are not expert in this field of study. I wish you all can give us some contructive comments or suggestions.

Thank you very much~

Who is yiyah?

2009-06-09T15:49:00.025+08:00

yiyah is my nick, I hope everyone call me with this nick. My name is Lee Yuin Yi, 20 years old guy. I am Utarian, studying Accounting (Degree). Someone said I am honest, nice and helpful (hahaha, please do not envy me). Well, this "someone" also said that he love me (wow~), hahaha. He had also comment about my voice, click here and see! ^_^

I usually like to viewing some forums such as cari, fdzone, 6park, jumpcn and wildwildnet for specific lastest digital information of news, comic, anime, software, drama, and else. But some of these forums also content some rough stuff and if I say that I did not view those such things...... do you believe? I always access into WBLE to get the information for preparing my assignment as it is important for my education.

Facebook is a free-access social networking website. I login Facebook to communicate and chat with most of my friends everywhere, anytime. It has a lot of application and games for me to play such as "Restaurant City", "Pet Society", "Who has the biggest brain?", "Waka-Waka", and "Happy Farm". My friends always compare the game's score with me for fun. That's excited!

Youtube is a very good video sharing web, you sure know about it. I like it very much since it can make me laugh by watching some funny videos. ^^ Try to watch -->THIS<--. Youtube also helps me a lot for my presentation in UTAR. Thank you, Youtube.

I open MSN to chat with my friends and check the mails. My friends always sent the interesting e-mails to me and make me laugh. MSN is so convenience that helps me receive and send the information for me.

My favourite search engine is Google. Why? Compare with others, Google always give me the things I usually want. Next, let's talk about browser. I love to use Firefox and say NO to IE (Internet Explorer). IE always makes me crazy and fury. Let me brief the reasons to you :

1. Open the IE (the lastest version-8), it need 3 to 5 seconds to process
2. IE need 2 to 4 seconds to process for opening a new tab (ahhh~!!)

See? It may totally cost me 5-9 seconds! You may think about that I should be patience. Come on, let's see about Firefox :-

1. Open the Firefox, it done within 3seconds :)

2. Open a new tab, it done with a blink!!!

I always like to view forums, and IE require me to wait for 3-5seconds for every tabs? No, thanks.

My hobbies is to watching anime, comic and playing games, so I always download them. I am only watching the Japan anime which more suit my taste. I watched "Darker Than Black", "Kekkaishi", "Shōnen Onmyōji", "Natsume Yūjinchō", "Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion", and "Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2". All these anime that i meantion above have different and unique story as I like. I watched them for many times before bacause they worth to review to find out some hidden hint for more understand about their story structure.

MapleStory is a MMORPG online game that I had play for 2 years. It's easy to play and the display graphic is cutie. I played it with my friends and it is so interesting about it. We meet and chat with many people in game.

Me

2009-06-09T11:40:00.021+08:00

Hello!!! Long time never blogging already, I even forgot i had had a blog until yesterday, haha!

By the way, I'm You Siew Yan, you can call me KK but I may not answer you.

I like to watching drama, different kinds of drama i also like, like animation, Korea drama, Hong Kong drama, America drama, all i like.

The website that I most visit now is http://www.facebook.com/, my friends are there to play games, we can communicate with each other using facebook just like using msn, very convenient for me. I can play games over facebook like pet society, restaurant city which are very hot games nowadays.

I also got visit http://www.mix.fm/, sometime I will check whether there is new songs for me to listen. http://www.msn.com/ i visit often too. http://www.pixnet.net/, I write blog in chinese over there, just to express my feelings using my mother language as it is easier for me. http://www.friendster.com/, i go there often in the past, but now according to trend, i go http://www.facebook.com/. http://www.youtube.com/ is very useful to me, as i can watch video and people shared video over there.

I got 3 pets, all cats, likes to fight each other, making my house with no peaceful moments, always have to lock the other cat when my other cat is around, very troublesome, but love them, so sacrifices have to be made. By the way, that job is done by my mother, so cause me no trouble actually, haha!

I did not stay at home now, I stayed at hostel now as now I'm furthering my study in Selangor, Sungai Long, a peaceful place for me to concentrate on my study.

Just want to grab you guys back a bit, here is World of E-commerce. Please look forward to see our new post regarding E-commerce.