E-Commerce

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

2009-07-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

The Electronic Government initiative in Malaysia was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It has improved both how the government operates internally as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses; simultaneously, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.

The vision of Electronic Government is a vision for government, businesses and citizenry working together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens. The vision focuses on effectively and efficiently delivering services from the government to the people of Malaysia, enabling the government to become more responsive to the needs of its citizens.

The 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are as follows;

Project Monitoring System (PMS)
Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
Generic Office Environment (GOE)

Electronic Procurement (EP)
Electronic Services (E-Services)
Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
E-Syariah

Project Monitoring System (PMS) is led by the Implementation and Co-ordination Unit (ICU) as one of the e-government projects that create a mechanism to monitor project implementation throughout various government agencies and statutory bodies i.e. from project application to approval to implementation, mid-term review and completion. PMS would also provide a platform for exchanging ideas and demonstrating best practices in project implementation. The PMS is designed to provide a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of government projects.

The introduction of Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) as an e-government project will provide a single interface for government employees to perform human resource functions effectively and efficiently (Yusoff, 2002). The objective of HRMIS is not just for record keeping but also to provide transactional functions such as leave applications, loan processing, competency management, recruitment, and selection of employees. The HRMIS project is anchored by the Public Service Department (PSD). The project started in 1999 and all modules have been completed in September 2006.

The aim of Generic Office Environment (GOE) is to introduce a fully Integrated, distributed and scalable office environment that leverages use of multimedia information technology. This will enable efficient communication, allowing collaboration across all workers, and ensuring right information reaching the right people in a timely manner The GOE project consists of modules namely Enterprise-wide Information Management System (EIMS), Enterprise-wide Communication Management System and Enterprise-Wide Collaboration Management System The EIMS provides a universal interface for users to manage, find, retrieve and compose the information that they need in their day-to-day operations Via the Communication and Collaboration Management Systems.

The electronic procurement system, better known as ePerolehan, streamlines government procurement activities and improves the quality of service it provides. ePerolehan converts traditional procurement processes in the Government machinery to electronic procurement on the Internet and can be accessed at http://www.eperolehan.com.my/m.my.

The next e-government project is Electronic Services (eServices). This project is a pilot project that allows citizens of Malaysia to engage in transactions with government and utilities payments such as telephone and electricity bill, police summons, Road and Transport Department (RTD) services. The eServices can be accessed through three websites, namely
http://www.eservices.com.my/; http://www.rilek.com.my/; and http://www.myeg.com.my/.

The main objective of Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX) is to improve the mobilization of human resources and optimize work force utilization through systematic matching of job seekers to job vacancies. For example, the ELX project initially started in November 2000 and until April 2007 about 405,530 job seekers and 62,255 employers were registered. Out of total 898,856 vacancies posted, 877,052 jobs were matched with suitable candidates.

The main objective of implementing E-Syariah is to improve the quality of service in Syariah courts. This will eventually enhance the Islamic Affairs Department's effectiveness through better monitoring and co-ordination of its agencies and thus improve the management of its 102 Syariah courts. The E-Syariah application consists of Syariah Court Case Management System, Office Automation System, ESyariah Portal, Syaree Lawyers Registration System and Library Management System. (eSyariah).

Besides these seven main projects under e-government flagships, several government agencies has taken initiatives to introduced online services for the public projects, aims to increase the ease and efficiency of public service to the people. Among others were Public Services Portal (myGovernment), e-Tanah, e-Consent, e-Filing, e-Local Government (e-PBT), e-Kehakiman, Custom Information System (SMK), Pensions Online Workflow Environment (POWER), and Training Information System (e-SILA).

As the risk of losing information is getting higher in E-Government system and the challenge is even greater compared to paper environment, therefore change and risk management must be in place to ensure information available overtime. NAM needs to develop partnerships and to share recordkeeping responsibilities with the creating agencies.

References:
1. “About MSC Malaysia.” <http://www.msc.com.my/msc/msc.asp>.
2. “e-Government.” <http://www.msc.com.my/rakyat/E-Goverment.html>.
3. “eperolehan .” <http://home.eperolehan.com.my/en/about/overview.aspx>.
4. “e-Services .” <http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Information/SiteMap/>.
5. “E-syariah.” <http://www.esyariah.gov.my/>.
6. “Generic Office Environment.” <http://www.mampu.gov.my/mmampu.php?Lang=01>.
7. “Generic Office Environment.” <http://www.mampu.gov.my/mmampu.php?Lang=01>.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies.

2009-07-06T02:12:00.000-07:00

Blogs have caught the attention of the business world. Some CEOs of Fortune 100 companies are blogging and say the results have exceeded their expectations. A corporate blog is fast becoming a 'must have' part of business marketing and PR strategies. It can create and maintain a conversation with your customers and stakeholders and build thought leadership.

Types of Corporate Blogs

1. Internal Blogs
An internal blog, generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view. Many blogs are also communal, allowing anyone to post to them. The informal nature of blogs may encourage employee participation, free discussion of issues, direct communication between various layers of an organization, and a sense of community.

2. External Blogs
An external blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services, to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues. It also allows a window to the company culture and is often treated more informally than traditional press releases, though a corporate blog often tries to accomplish similar goals as press releases do.

3. CEO Blogs
Although there are debates on whether CEOs should blog or not, blogging among CEOs is becoming popular. Executives who blog include Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors, Jonathan Schwartz, President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, and Mark Cuban, owner of The Dallas Mavericks among other things.

Corporate blogs have some unique features which make them perfect alterative or upgrade to typical corporate web pages which are usually exemplified by minor usage of user generated content (UGC) – i.e. the communication is onesided or asymmetric and the users do not have many opportunities to provide company with valuable information, not mentioning about the possibility of having on-line dialogue with company’s employees and other clients. The key prerequisites for successful corporate blogs are:

Symmetric communication.
Informal language.
Dialogue with readers which results in creating virtual community.
Regular postings.
Integration with other media and other content.
Clear rules and purpose of publishing (regulations).

Corporate blogging provides a clear mind map or editorial guidelines of overall marketing or communication strategy to its employees and third parties with organization communication plan and media mix. Besides that, it encourages employee participation in contribution of expertise, free discussion of issues or topics and deal with it, collective intelligence, be a direct communication between various layers of an organization and shares their views with others employees, teams or spokespersons publicly. Furthermore, it can be used to announce new products and services, explain and clarify policies of the company and to react on public criticism on certain issues. Business blog can interact with a target market on a personal level by building a level of credibility and asking for their feedback on products and services.

A corporate blog makes it easy for readers, be they customers or prospects, to find the latest and most accurate information about its new products and services. It can help achieve customer familiarity with the company products or services. Through the corporate blog, a company can converse directly with customers and prospects. Two-way communication creates trust and builds customer relationships. A corporate blog is the perfect choice for interacting with existing and potential clients. Corporate blogging serves as a channel for a company and its customers to meet on common ground and to know each other more. A corporate blog allows a company to closely track where and under what condition its products or services are being discussed online.

Through the corporate blog, a company can keep an ear to the ground to hear what is being said about the company and speaking up when the situation calls for it. A more personal or understated benefit of a corporate blog is that it gives a human face to a perceived faceless and detached business entity. A corporate blog conjures images of people who are passionate about their products or services and are eager to engage customers and prospects.
(http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/186126/blogging/corporate_blogging_dos_and_donts.html)

Top Companies Corporate Blogs

One of the challenges to overcome for corporate blogging is the fear factor many corporate execs have - fear of loss of control. How can you control what people say if anyone can publish? That is precisely the same fear in many organizations today with blogs.

A discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the students perspective

2009-07-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

What is E-learning?
E-learning means using the technology to support the learning process and often the medium of instruction is through computer technology.
As far as I’m concerned, these universities of Malaysia have adopted E-learning and give emphasize on it. They are, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Unitar), Multimedia Universiti (MMU), Open University Malaysia (OUM). Besides these universities, others too promoting E-learning as they are important and necessary in order to cope with the standard.

From the students’ perspective, these are the pros and cons.
Pros:
Learning time is flexible
In many contexts, 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.

Expenses reduced
With E-learning, we can afford getting higher education degrees at respectable universities and colleges by saving extra expenses for traveling, and accommodation. Taking myself as an example, I stay at Puchong and I travel from my home to the campus each day; petrol fuel has been one of the expenses to me. For students from outstation, they can’t afford to make this kind of travel every day; the only way to go about it is to rent him/her a room nearby the campus.

Reducing environmental impact
E-learning allows students to avoid travel, thus reducing the overall carbon output and the usage of papers. Notes will all be in digital form instead of printing them on papers, hence is more environmentally friendly.

Cons:
Unreliable internet connection
One of the frustrating cons ever, it might not happen in any other countries out there, but some of the Internet Service Providers (ISP) here in Malaysia are rather frustrating. Slow connection is often a factor, worse still, disconnections happen quite often as well which lead to frustration.

Level of motivation could be low
With E-learning it’s so flexible that students can go online even lying on a bed with their laptop on but here’s the problem where level of motivation of students could be low because of flexibility; Unmotivated learners or those with poor study habits may fall behind.

Complex management of computer files and online learning software
Some students just don’t really know computer stuff, some just hate it. They might find it difficult for them to use the software and have problems dealing with management of digital files.

One of the most influential things which stimulate e-learning development is globalization through the Internet. The globalized world of computer technologies accepts people of different cultures irrespective of their origin, boundaries, genders, races, ages and sexes. E-learning has become an integral part of this e-world, as well as part of the developments in Malaysian universities even though it leaves so many questions and demands regarding its improvement as it get benefits.

More information on E-learning:
http://www.managerwise.com/article.phtml?id=306

A review on a post on legal from m e-commerce blog

2009-07-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

A review on a post Legal from my e-commerce blog

http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Legal

- LEGAL -

We understand that the purpose of e-commerce is to purchase products and services online. E-commerce brings a lot of convenience to the world as well as cons.

After reviewing the blog, we know that there are a lot of victims made online transactions and get cheated. While the internet users are trying to identify theft and phishing, other types of online fraud continue to proliferate.

Before learning how to protect ourselves from these frauds, we need to identity the common forms of online fraud being perpetrated today. They are as followed:

1. Auction fraud
2. Goods not delivered
3. Bogus money offers
4. Bad checks for services or goods
5. Work-at-home plans and pyramid schemes
6. False loans or credit help for a fee
7. Charity frauds
8. Fake government grants

Thus, how we protect ourselves from online fraud??

There are some common tips here to guide us to protect ourselves from being cheated, they are >>

1. Don’t do business with an organization you can’t verify or don’t trust.

2. Check with your consumer protection agency and Better Business Bureau for outstanding complaints.

3. Confirm contact details, including physical addresses, phone numbers, and localities of incorporation. Don’t do business with organizations that won’t freely provide this information.

4. Understand all the rules of an auction before bidding.

5. Confirm an auction sellers’ track record and contact details before bidding on their item.

6. Avoid buying collectible or one-of-a-kind items in an online auction. If you can’t inspect it beforehand, how do you know it’s the real thing?

7. Don’t send cash or use wire transfers to pay for online goods, services, or auction items.

8. Insist on a cashier’s check for the exact amount of goods or services you’ve sold over the Internet. Never deposit a check you’ve received for amounts exceeding the price you’ve negotiated.

9. Even if you’re familiar with a charity, call the organization to confirm their online request before making a donation.

10. Use good judgment when responding to offers of easy money. If the offer appears too good to be true, it probably is.

11. Be wary of unsolicited requests for upfront fees from lenders, government agencies, or other organizations.

12. Make all online transactions with credit cards over secure Web sites. Even if you’ve done your due diligence and decided to transact business with someone, you should still pay the safest way.

http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/library/article.jsp?aid=internet_fraud_prevention

We can always see online fraud happens around the world. E-commerce brought benefits but also brought harms. Hence, we need to have some general knowledge of some of the common types of fraud in order to know how to protect ourselves. With caution, common sense, and awareness we can keep our finances secure.

Electronic Currency

2009-07-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

What ‘Electronic Currency’ exactly is?
Electronic currency (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic currency, digital money, digital cash or digital currency) refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic money. Also, it is a collective term for financial cryptography and technologies enabling it.

Why ‘Electronic currency’?
Most money in today’s world is electronic, and tangible cash is becoming less frequent. With the introduction of internet / online banking, debit cards, online bill payments and internet business, paper money is becoming a thing of the past.

Banks now offer many services whereby a customer can transfer funds, purchase stocks, and offer a variety of other services without having to handle physical cash or checks. Customers do not have to wait in lines; this provides a lower-hassle environment. That is, through e-banking we make our payments for the electricity bill, water bill etc.

Debit cards and online bill payments allow immediate transfer of funds from an individual's personal account to a business's account without any actual paper transfer of money. This offers a great convenience to many people and businesses alike.

Besides, electronic cards, smart cards, and digital stored value system is also widely used today. One of the most successful examples is Octopus, from Hong Kong. It debuted since 1997 and instantly became widely use in the public. It’s extremely convenient, from all transportation to shopping, restaurant, super market or even the public phone booth it can be used. For more of its usage and purposes, you may visit at http://www.hong-kong-travel.org/Octopus.asp .

E-currency has become more popular today due to its convenience and variety of usage. We need to bring less cash with us nowadays because these cards (credit card, smart card, etc) have brought us the convenience we sought for. Soon electronic currency will be widely used all over the world.

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers.

2009-07-05T00:48:00.000-07:00

It’s a fast-growing niche; in 2007, $2.1 billion was placed on reloadable prepaid cards, according to Mercator Advisory Group, a market research company that specializes in the payment industry. By 2011, predicts that number will jump to $14 billion. A cash card is a pre-paid debit card that enables the holders to make purchases and have them deducted from the card's available balance. (Defination from Creditor Web). While, others definition of pre-paid card is a payment card such as MasterCard, Maestro, Visa Electron and Amex, pre loaded with your own money, which you can then use wherever the payment card is accepted, including in the internet and on board. (http://www.prepaid101.com/WhatIsPrepaidCard.aspx)

Prepaid cash card can help to manage your money safer, easier, and cheaper. Prepaid Visa and Prepaid MasterCard work like a checking account where individuals and businesses deposit money and withdraw funds from a protected account. The money is safe in the prepaid card accounts instead of carrying it around in cash. It's very convenient to sign up for a prepaid cash card. (http://globalcrdsolutions.com/)

The usages of prepaid cash card are wide. It can be used in many ways as follow: Prepaid cash card can be used to make purchases. For example when u go shopping, u do not need to carry a lot of cash around. Besides, it is more secure to use prepaid cash card rather than carrying cash around and it enables the person to start spending according to a budget as well. Apart from that, prepaid cash card can also be used to withdraw cash from ATM without worry about overdrafts because you can only spend what is in your account. Some prepaid card programs provide monthly statements. You may be able to check your card balance by phone or online. Keep track of the amount on your card so you won’t mistakenly try to spend or withdraw more money than is available and pay unnecessary fees.
(http://www.creditcardflyers.com/credit-education/prep aid-cards.php)

One alternative to cash is a prepaid card, which works and looks like a debit card. You can use prepaid cards to:

Make purchases in stores, online, by phone, and through mail order
Pay bills
Send and transfer money to friends and family
Get cash from automatic teller machines (ATMs) or banks

Touch ‘n Go (TnG) smart card is used by Malaysian for electronic payment system to toll expressway and highway. It is expanding its business to retail purchase by starting with fast food industry that enables consumers to buy dough nut, burger or fast-food from 21 outlets such as Burger King, 7-Eleven, Dunkin’ Donut. It is imitating the success of Hong Kong’s Octopus Card by setting 5 to 10% of the card holders for retail purchase as current target of the company.

The top five reasons why people choose to use prepaid debit cards (the results are based on a survey they conducted). Here they are:

To pay bills
They wanted a Visa card
They wanted direct deposit
To avoid carrying cash
To shop online

Of course, prepaid cash cards do have its downside, every time when you use it, you’ll be spending your money. That is, my friend, offers fair warning that even with some many positive attributes, a cash card is no substitute for common sense.

Mobile payment system in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers adoption strategies.

2009-07-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

Mobile payment systems have been developed in recent years to facilitate purchases of products, services, and content in mobile and electronic commerce and at physical points of sale in Malaysia. Mobile Payment is paying for goods or services with a mobile device such as a mobile phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or other such device. They can be used in a variety of payment scenarios such as music, videos, ring tones, online game subscription or items, wallpapers and other digital goods. Typical usage entails the user electing to make a mobile payment, being connected to a server via the mobile device to perform authentication and authorization, and subsequently being presented with confirmation of the completed transaction. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_payment)

There are four primary models for mobile payments:

Premium SMS based transactional payments
Direct Mobile Billing
Mobile web payments (WAP)
Contactless NFC (Near Field Communication)

In comparison with other platforms upon which electronic payment is based such as the personal computer(PC) and smart card, the proposed mobile phone has many advantages, which might make it possible to become universal electronic payment vehicle in the future.

The PC lack of hardware based protection measures, is not a secure platform to conduct electronic payment. The rampant identity theft and spreading of virus and other malicious codes highlight the weakness of the PC in security. Although the recent trusted computing initiative from Trusted Computing Group aims in part to address the security issues through both hardware and software based approaches, the open system nature of the PC, which can install and run arbitrary software, makes it difficult to be trustworthy.

However, the mobile phone can be designed to be more secure such as embedded (Trusted Platform Module) TPM to secure chip and storage, tamper-proof mechanisms to secure the input and output, securely crafted operating system (OS) to insulate itself from tampering and bypassing by applications running above. This may be easily achieved due to the fact that the mobile phone is not an open system. The OS, especially the device drivers, cannot be modified by end users, and applications cannot be arbitrarily installed by end users. Moreover, the mobile phone has the merit of mobility over the PC, and even the laptop is awkward to carry comparing
with a handset.

The smart card has the advantages of ease of use, easy to carry, and security, which are shared by the smart phone. However, the smart card doesn’t provide trusted input and output, and it has to interface with smart card reader that is further connected to a PC. For example, if the transaction requires the user to key in some sensitive data, it is at risk of being intercepted and the data shown in the computer monitor may not be the same as the data transmitted to the smart card.

For example, Visa has move beyond the pilot phase of its first commercial mobile payments service for point-of-sale transactions with Maxis, Maybank, and Nokia all part of the company's first commercial program of this nature to launch in Malaysia. Using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, consumers can purchase an NFC-enabled mobile device and use it to make Visa payWave-enabled transactions at the point-of-sale instead of using their payment card.

Maxis, Maybank, and Nokia have teamed with Visa to offer Visa payWave on mobile devices. The service allows Maybank Visa account holders to use a specific NFC-Nokia handset in front of a reader to complete a Visa transaction. Maybank Visa account holders can also download their Visa payWave credit account details directly to the Nokia handset over the Maxis wireless network. (http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/technology/16929-visa-rings-in-on-mobile-payment-space.html)
(http://www.mis-asia.com/news/articles/worlds-first-contactless-mobile-payment-system-launches-in-malaysia)

The San Francisco coffee outlet at KLCC is already equipped with the Visa payWave that allows for mobile payments via NFC.

Mobile Banking (m-banking) and mobile Payment (m-payment) solutions in Malaysia are very diverse in nature. Mobile operators trial with diverse solutions, none of them using the phone as an overall means for real-time banking and payment instructions. Only a few banks provide true m-banking solutions that enable customers access to their current e-banking systems using a Java client on their phone.

For instance, Celcom offers a simple and standardized platform for m-Banking and m-Payment (known as Celcom Mobile Financial Services). Celcom selected paybox as its solutions partner to set up a holistic mobile Banking and Payment solution that will allow customers to access their accounts at any bank, at a minimal investment by the participating banks.
(http://broadband.lankapo.com/?p=91)

As to the end of this blogging topic, in order for mobile payment to succeed and achieve widespread acceptance, we need to strengthen consumer confidence in safety, security and reliability of mobile networks as a mean for consumers to access financial services. Indeed, mobile digital signature, which ensures the confidentiality, authenticity and integrity of payments initiated from mobile phones, which is one of the ways forward towards building a secure mobile infrastructure that is conducive for the delivery of financial services.

Credit card debts: Causes and Preventions

2009-06-28T03:19:00.000-07:00

What is credit card?

Credit card is part of a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. It is a card entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder’s promise to pay for these goods and services. The issuer of the card grants a line of credit to the consumer from which the user can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance to the user. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card)

But, if the credit card holder does not have the ability to pay back after purchasing the goods or services that wanted, what consequences will the holder take?

CREDIT CARD DEBT!!

The causes of credit card debts are

1. It's an emergency - Often we go into debt by convincing ourselves that we have an emergency. Certainly there are times when a true emergency arises.
2. We deserve it - After working so hard to save money and spend wisely using credit card. It's like taking one step forward two steps back.
3. It's a bargain - Great deals also shouldn't be used to buy more than we need. Regardless, it's not a great deal if you spend a ton of money on credit card interest paying off the debt over months or even years.
4. It's not much money - It's so easy to spend money we don't have if we spend it in small amounts. The same is true with "small" credit card debt. Enough "small" charges on the card over time can grow into a mountain of debt.
5. The payment is small - Remember, the payment may be small and manageable at first, but buy enough on credit and the payments grow substantially. On top of that, you still have to pay back the borrowed amount with interest.
6. The card rewards make it worth it - We take advantage of many like cash back rewards. If the rewards are tempting you into credit card debt, get a card without rewards or just use your debit card.
7. It's for my business - A business credit card, particularly for small companies, can serve many important roles. But like all credit cards, business cards can also cause you to spend more than you should.

(http://www.doughroller.net/credit-cards/10-lies-credit-card-debt/)

The preventions of credit card debts are

1. Keep the Right Perspective
Consumers need to keep the right perspective, which is you don’t have to be a slave to the credit card company or even to seduction of advertising. This is because all of us can control over our financial health without depending on a credit card.
2. Manage your finances
Starting with a strategy will help keep you on track before you ever even pull out the credit card. First, determining your monthly income and needed expenses and setting up a budget. Next, help keep you on track set goals and put motivators in place which is setting a savings goal with a deadline. Finally, you need to monitor how much you charge on your card in relation to your credit limit.
3. Shop for the Right Card
Get a credit card personalized for your particular situation with no or very low fees and low interest. With the high saturation of the market you’ll find the perfect fit for your wallet.
4. Read the Fine Print
One hour spent reading can save you hours of headaches and hundreds of dollars in the long run. Understanding everything from your interest rate and fees to how to earn rewards and how long of a grace period you have.
5. Know Your Interest Rate
The interest rate you were offered, the interest rate the issuer actually gives you on approval, and check the rate on your monthly statements because it may raises for little or no apparent reason and with little warning.
6. Pay the Balance in Full
Before using a credit card for a purchase, ask yourself, “Do I have the funds to pay for this?”
7. Pay on Time
Never make a late payment to anyone. Because credit card companies can raises your interest rate if you are late.
8. Use it Like Cash, Not a Credit Card
Use your credit card like cash by paying your balance in full each month. This called green factor – with cash you can physically feel how much or how little you have. The point is that you need to be in control of your credit card and spending habits.
9. Limit the Plastic in Your Wallet
Every credit card comes with its own set of terms and conditions. Remember which card has the lowest rate, and save you from making a mistake that will affect your credit history if you only have to keep track of one or two cards.
10. Avoid Extra Expenses
Sometimes it’s the little extra expenses that sneak up on you before you even know it.
11. Cash Advances
Typically cash advances come with a much higher interest rate, fees, and no grace period. The moment you take a cash advance you start paying interest on that balance, which means even if you pay the entire balance in full each month you still pay interest.
12. Extra Products
Credit card companies will try to get you to purchase additional products. The truth of the matter is you usually don’t need it.
13. Early Education
Teach our youngest generation all about money before they even qualify for a credit card. In addition, advertisers more to younger and younger children, so it’s imperative to teach them very early about the lure of money and how to manage finances. The earlier children learn how to manage finances the less likely they will be to fall into credit card and debt problems as an adult.

(http://www.cardratings.com/howtoavoidcreditcarddebt.html)

We all know that, the key to get a good body health begins with a dose of prevention like eat right, exercise regularly, and get a good night’s sleep.
It is same with your financial health. By taking a few steps of prevention today, tomorrow your finances will have a clean bill of health freeing you to live a life of opportunity rather than of difficulty.

The application of 3rd party certification programme in M'sia

2009-06-28T00:40:00.000-07:00

TrustGate is the most popular application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia. It was established in 1999 as a licensed Certification Authority (CA) in Malaysia under the Digital Signature Act 1997 and operating within the Multimedia Super Corridor. It provides security solution and trusted services to help companies build a secure network and application infrastructure for their electronic transactions and communications over the network. Security is the basic concern of entering into the new Internet economy. The ever-changing paradigm of e-commerce needs a well-mandated safety infrastructure. The vision of Trustgate.com is clear: “To enable organizations to conduct their business securely over the Internet, as much as what they have been enjoying in the physical world.” http://www.trustgate.com/

Now, I would like to introduce two main services that are provided by TrustGate.com

1)MyTrust for Mobile Signature

With MyTrust, you can turn a SIM card into a Mobile Digital Identity for secure mobile banking and other financial services. Mobile digital signature provides non-repudiation on transactions under the Digital Signature Act, 1997. It runs on Wireless PKI platform and Mobile Operator infrastructure. PKI-enabled SIM cards are preloaded with MyTrust application and a digital certificate from a licensed Certification Authority. Users are able to digitally sign any transaction with ease and convenience via their mobile phone.

2)MyKad PKI (MyKey)

Malaysian government has put in place a smart National Identity Card (“MyKad”) for every citizen. MyKad with PKI capability allows its holder to conduct online transaction with government agencies and private sectors. MyKey, is the MyKad PKI solution that works with your physically MyKad, allowing you to authenticate yourself online and to digitally sign documents or transactions and is accepted by the Malaysian government.

Trustgate is a very popular and useful 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia today. By using Trustgate, we are able to secure our online transactions and data more efficiently. But frankly, 3rd party certifucation programme is still not common in Malaysia, because the citizens here are still lacking of understanding about online security. Hence, I do hope to have more certifications to be founded in malaysia in order to promote a safer internet world.

Phishing: Example and its prevention methods

2009-06-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

A brief history on “Phishing”
The word phishing comes from the analogy that Internet scammers are using e-mail lures to fish for passwords and financial data from the sea of Internet users. The term was coined in 1996 by hackers who were stealing AOL Internet accounts by scamming passwords from unsuspecting AOL users. Since hackers have a tendency to replacing "f" with "ph" the term phishing was derived.

Definition of “Phishing”
Phishing is defined by Wikipedia as the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT Administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing)

In layman terms, it is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the users’ information.

Example of how “Phishing” works

1. This is a false claim disguising as though it is sent by Citibank.

2. They might include a graphic from the bank right on the email message or website. The logo of Citibank further mislead the customers believe this e-mail is truly sent by Citibank.

3. Lastly, directing/leading people to click on the link provided (any clickable links) in the e-mail to theft information. The link provided may look like it goes to the bank’s website while the victim is actually sent to a very different site.

Generally, this is how “phishing” works.

Phishing prevention methods
Here's some simple yet effective methods to avoid being scammed.

1. Check who the email is from - This is an extremely effective and easy way to stay safe. Just check the sender of the email. If the email address is not the domain of a legitimate bank/service, then it is certain that it is a phishing scam. Also, be aware of banks or institutions that send you an email saying you need to verify your account information, and it’s a place you don’t even do business with! Simply delete any emails like these.

2. Do not follow a click here link in the email - Phishing emails usually have a “Click here to re-enter your user information” kind of link that leads to an illegitimate website. This is not fool-proof. Just by looking at the link, you may be able to determine whether the link is the real deal. Also, do not just focus on the domain; take a look at all the slashes that follow. Also, make sure that if there is a copy-and-paste link that the one that is embedded is the same likes the one written.

Furthermore the connection should be encrypted – the link should start with https:// instead of http:// . Don’t click the link in the email thinking you will set them straight. Instead, you would have just fallen into their trap by letting them have your information.

3. Check contact information provided in the email - A lot of Phishing emails contain bogus contact information that would just serve you into their hands. In case you get an email with a phone number or an address, check that against the one that you got when opening the account. If they are not the same the email is a scam.

4. Check the information about you provided in the email - Perpetrators are getting better and better at obtaining your information. Just because they know your name does not mean that the email is legit. They could have gotten that from any social networking website. Instead, if there is any other information provided, such as an account number, make sure it corresponds to what you have.

5. Use your browser - All newer browsers have some sort of website identification mechanism that allows you to check the identity of the site. “Real” websites will have that information… while those set up solely for the purpose of farming information will not.

Why would somebody do this? Well, you can gather a lot of juicy information with a phishing scam. First, you can get somebody’s account number and password. Then you can try to hijack their assets. Some phishing scams ask for all of your personal information so that they can steal your identity and open credit accounts in your name.

Thus, users have to becareful to avoid falling for phishing scams. These methods above are sufficient to prevent most of the common phishing scams on the internet. There shouldn't be any problem if users follow these advices and methods accordingly.

Anyone would like to know more about phishing, how to spot phishing scams and other related articles may visit at http://banking.about.com/od/securityandsafety/a/phishingscams.htm for more information.

How to Safeguard our Personal and Financial Data

2009-06-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

Internet, is a public network without any restrictions and connecting millions of computer throughout the world. But, when we are signing up for some registrations, we need to fill in personal information like gender, DOB, addresses, e-mail address and others. The information that entered will be kept by the particular company in their database.

For example,
When we are make an online purchase, we need to do an online payment. The moment we key in our credit card numbers or other personal data on the websites, how sure are we that our information will be confidential, safe and secure?
Why do we need to protect our personal and financial data? Major security issues are authentication, authorization, auditing, confidentiality, integrity, availability, and nonrepudiation. The main reason is to prevent unauthorized access of hackers or crackers that will bring harm or losses. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(computer_security, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(computer_security)#Black_hat)

How to safeguard our personal and financial data in the Internet, the public network? Some of the most often used methods to safeguard your personal data and financial data are:-

1. Authentication System
Authentication system identifies the legitimate parties to a transaction and determines the actions they are allowed to perform. This system also limits their action to only those that are necessary to initiate and complete the transaction. It included.

· Access control mechanism – limits the actions that can be performed but an authentication person or group.
· Passive tokens – storage devices (e.g. magnetic strips) used in a 2 factor authentication system that contain a secret code.
· Active tokens – small, stand-alone electronic devices in a two factor authentication system that generate one-time password.
· Biometric systems – authentication system that indentify a person by measurement of a biological characteristic such as fingerprint, iris pattern, facial features or voice.

2. Public key infrastructure (PKI)
A scheme for securing e-payment using public key encryption and various technical components.

3. Private and public key encryption
Encryption is the process of scrambling a message in such a way that is difficult, expenses, one time consuming for an unauthorized person to unscramble it.
· Symmetric (private) key system
An encryption system that uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt the message
· Asymmetric (public) key encryption
Method of encryption that uses a pair of matched keys – a public key to encrypt a message and a private key to decrypt it, or vice versa.

4. Digital signature and certificates
· Digital signature
an identifying code that can be used to authenticate the identity of the sender of a document
· Hash
a mathematical computation that is applied to a message, using a private key, to encrypt the message.
· Message digest
a summary of a message, converted into a string of digits, after the hash has been applied.
· Digital envelope
the combination of the encrypted original message and the digital signature, using the recipient’s public key
· Digital certificate
Verification that the holder of a public or private key is who they claim to be
· Certificate authorities (CAs)
Third parties that issue digital certificates

5. Secure socket layer (SSL)
Protocol that utilizes standard certificates for authentication and data encryption to ensure privacy or confidentiality

6. Secure electronic transaction (SET)
A protocol designed to provide secure online credit card transactions for both consumers and merchants; developed jointly by Netscape, Visa, MasterCard, and others

7. Firewall
Software application that acts as a filter between a company’s private network and the Internet

Good security is just plain good business. Aware of the risk of identity theft, today’s customers are concerned about their privacy. All business owners know that customers prefer companies that demonstrate commitments to security. For the same reasons, customers will think twice before doing business with a company that has got less experience on privacy issues.

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

2009-06-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, people rely on computers to create, store and manage critical information. Consequently, it is important for users to aware that computer security plays a major role in protecting their data from loss, damage, and misuse. The threat of online fall under several general categories: (1) accidental actions (2) malicious attacks. Within this latter category there are numerous subgroups, including computer viruses, denial of service attacks and distributed denial of service attacks. (3) online fraud, comprises issues such as identity theft and data theft.

1. Accidental actions
Accidental actions contribute to a large number of computer security risks. This category encompasses problems arising from basic lack of knowledge about online security concepts and includes issues such as poor password choices, accidental or erroneous business transactions, accidental disclosure, and erroneous or outdated software.

2.Malicious attacks
Attacks that specifically aim to do harm are known as premeditated or malicious attacks. They can be further broken down into attacks caused by malicious code and those caused by intentional misrepresentation. The most common form of malicious code is a computer virus. There are four main classes of viruses which are file infectors, system or boot-record infectors, macro viruses and multi-part viruses.(http://www.inc.com/articles/2000/04/18782.html).
At the 2009, there are some top 100 malicious that everyone can have a look.
(http://www.pcpitstop.com/libraries/process/topmalicousmalicous)

Denial of service attacks, another form of malicious code, are carefully crafted and executed. Denial of Service Attacks are not new, yet they are growing in sophistication. Traditional DOS attacks usually involve one computer attacking another, but the use of multiple computers in a highly organized attack is becoming increasingly common. Such attacks, known as Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDOS), were witnessed in a number of large corporate computer shutdowns in 2000. The DDOS attacker strategically builds an army of key players including one client machine for coordinating the attack and three to four host machines which are battlefields under the attacker's direct control.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack)

3. Online fraud

Online fraud is a broad term covering Internet transactions that involve falsified information. Some of the most common forms of online fraud are the sale via Internet of counterfeit documents, such as fake IDs, diplomas, and recommendation letters sold as credentials.

Identity theft is a major form of online fraud, or misrepresentation. Personal identity theft on the Internet is the newest form of fraud that has been witnessed in traditional settings for many years. For example, in traditional settings, thieves open credit card accounts with a victim's name, address and social security number, or bank accounts using false identification. In the online world, electronic commerce information can be intercepted as a result of vulnerabilities in computer security. Thieves can then take this information (such as credit card numbers) and do with it what they will. (http://www.cifas.org.uk/default.asp?edit_id=561-56)

Identity theft can also be undertaken on a large scale, as in the case of a company or even a city. For example, in January 2001, the entire municipality of Largo, Florida lost e-mail service for over a week when an unknown company based in Spain compromised its identity. The company hacked into the city's e-mail relay system to steal the Largo.com identity. Soon enough, e-mail spam seemingly from Largo.com addresses flooded the net, and many Internet Service Providers blacklisted all incoming and outgoing electronic messages from the city.

No one connected to a computer network is really safe from hackers. Fortunately, most invasions or infections don't result in serious injury to the system that has been attacked, provided that you have an ongoing backup plan. In the end of this topic blog, here are some my advises about security prevent methods to protect your computer system:

1.Erect a firewall between the Web server and your network.
2.Place e-mail virus scanners on all computers.
3.Hire a skilled system administrator.
4.Keep up-to-date with security patches for your operating system and server software.
5.Remove unused communication ports.

Revenue model of Google, Amazon.com and eBay

2009-06-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

Google appeared to be one of the greatest search engines in World Wide Web. Google "gives away" a great search engine, among other features. That's great. But how do they pay for it? What is Google's business model? In a nutshell, through advertising revenue, this is both on Google’s site and other sites.

Google is a major player in the online advertising industry. Every time you search Google, you'll see ads displayed along with your results. The sponsored text-link ads above and to the right of the results generate a great deal of money for Google. These ads are known as Google Adwords. Besides, there’s another one called Google Adsense, it enables website publishers of all sizes to display relevant ads on their online content and earn money.

Besides making profit out of the ads, Google also has its own store selling its products via online. (http://www.google-store.com/index.php?currency=USD&osCsid=95d994cca193ccb76321c79eb28b1b5c ) Both the advertisement fees and sales amongst the revenue models are adopted by Google.

The ads highlighted in red shown in the above picture is how Google actually make profit out of it.

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American-based multinational electronic commerce company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is the America’s largest online retailer. Obviously, it Amazon.com generates revenue by using sales of revenue models. It started as an online bookstore but soon diversified to product lines of VHS, DVD, music CDs and MP3s, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, digital downloads etc.

eBay's Headquarter in San Jose, California.

eBay Inc. is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, and it uses “Transaction fees” as its revenue model to generate profit for its company. eBay.com is an online auction hosting and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety goods and services worldwide. A majority of the sales take place through a set-time auction format, but subsequent methods include a substantial segment of listings in the "Buy It Now" category.

How does eBay make money? When you sell an item on the site, eBay takes a cut of the profits you make. For example, let's say I started an auction selling one of my CD's, and I start the bidding at $10. A few days later my CD sells for $15. In this situation, here are the fees I would now owe to eBay:
- Insertion fee (Fee for starting an auction): $0.55
- Final value fee (A percentage of what the auction ended at): $0.79
A total of $1.34 eBay made its profit from me of selling this CD; with thousand of auctions taking place each day, eBay is making real great deals.

In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in thirty other countries including Malaysia. Its slogan has well defined what eBay is all about - “From collectibles to cars, buy and sell all kinds of items on eBay”.

In a nutshell, I personally think that no revenue model is the best as each of them has its pros and cons respectively. One might be better than another in different aspects but what is more important here is that these models brought us new perspectives of doing business and making profits in today’s e-commerce as they were proven to be successful by these companies.

Relevant sites:
http://www.google.com/
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.ebay.com/

An Example of an E-commerce success and causes-eBay

2009-06-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

The majority of people in the world today have used eBay to either buy or sell goods. The fact of the matter is that since eBay became known world wide it has drawn in millions of satisfied buyers and sellers. Ebay provides various means and opportunities to those who are searching for profit making ways on the internet. It is the largest marketplace in the world where millions of transactions are completed daily and best place to do all the work of selling. You can start your own business on eBay without having to go through the trouble and expense of setting up an e-commerce site of your own. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay)

There are variety of payment methods that you can use for selling products on eBay like debit or credit cards, electronic checks, money orders and personal checks. But the most popular payment method utilized by eBay is the PayPal service. You can open a free PayPal account and pay for goods with a credit card or debit your bank account through PayPal. Once you have received the payment Ebay will automatically deliver your e-Book to the buyer. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in thirty other countries such as Malaysia, Japan, Poland, Taiwan, South Africa, Thailand, France, New Zealand and so on. It operates in three segments which are eBay Marketplace, Payments, and Communications.

Success factor of eBay:
1)Best match defined- Best Match is the default sort order on the search results page that shows potential buyers the most relevant and popular items for their search criteria. Best Match uses different criteria to evaluate and sort Auction-style listings and Fixed Price listings. Best Match evaluates Sellers and items such as recent sales for fixed price, time ending soonest for auction style, sellers’ detailed seller ratings, sellers buyer satisfaction ratings, item title relevance, item plus shipping cost.

2)Corporate level strategy-EBay is a very diverse company. The service they provide is appealing to both individual customers as well as large corporate customers. Hobbyist and collectors, casual sellers, professional buyers, and corporate sellers all belong to the eBay customer base. The products that are offered on the eBay website range from shoes to automobiles. This makes their product line very diverse as well. The creation of eBay motors, eBay Real Estate, and the Live Auctions specialty site, as well as the acquisition of Half.com have all contributed to the growth and diversification of this company.

3)PayPal-PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. PayPal serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders. EBay purchases made by credit card through PayPal may incur a "foreign transaction fee" if the seller is located in another country, as credit card issuers are automatically informed of the seller's country of origin. (http://www.answers.com/topic/paypal)

4)Global reach-The global reach of eBay is not achieved by any other online auction site. For large corporations international selling and buying is done everyday. Even for an individual buyer or seller, having the option of searching throughout 150 countries with a span of 94.9 million users is very appealing.

5)Variety of product offered- When customers visit eBay they can search for virtually any product. eBay boasts a category variety not matched by any competitor with over 27,000.
(http://www.ebay.com/)

In conclusion, eBay has always been doing well in focusing its company's goals and has been fast in grabbing onto opportunities. From my point of view, i think eBay is one of very successful e-commerce companies in the e-marketplace and its potential for growth is greater today than it has ever been and i believe eBay will continue to grow ahead of e-commerce in the future.

An example of an E-Commerce failure and its causes --- Webvan

2009-06-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Webvan was an online grocery business that was started in 1999 by Louis Borders, founding partner of Borders Books, and went bankrupt in 2001. Webvan is a business-to-consumer based e-commerce company. At the time, Webvan offered customers to order groceries and fresh food, such as meat, produce and milk, over the Internet and deliver to them within the same day.

Webvan was one of the biggest e-commerce business at that time. Whereares, why did this large e-commerce business go bankrupt. Now, let us look into the major causes that brought it to bankruptcy:

1) An inappropriate business model
Webvan has incorrectly believed that it was in the technology business, instead of the grocery business. Instead of increasing of its merchandises, it just continuously improve its online business technology. This action made it fail to recognize it was selling the grocery, not the technology.

2) The lack of retail food experience from the management team
Webvan was managed by consultants who were appointed as officers and directors, even though they had no retail food experience. Since grocery business run on very low margins, even the most effectively managed can lose money. Webvan founder Louis Borders was an expert in selling books, however, books do not expire.

3) The lack of understanding of the sociology and psychology of retailing food
Webvan did not put much efford in understanding and studying the sociology and psychology of its customers. Because at that time, most of the customers still could not accept to buy the food and commodities without seeing and touching them.

4) Erroneous target marketing
The most obvious customers for Webvan’s services were not soccer moms or the upscale suburban families the company targeted but people who have problems getting to a grocery store. Obvious potential customers were senior citizens, mothers with very young children or disabled people. However, most of their target customers did not even know to online at that time.

5) The high cost of running an online grocery business
The cost for building Webvan’s high-tech Atlanta warehouse alone was a staggering $40 million—much more than warehouses for traditional retail grocery chains. Webvan used the latest technology to automate its warehouses, bought hundreds of refrigerated delivery trucks, and hired and insured drivers allover the country. Unfortunately, the profit that it earned could not cover the cost that it contributed. one of the Webvan's packaging and distributing centers is shown below:

So, these are 5 main causes that bring Webvan to its failure. It is very useful for us to set up our own e-commerce business by understanding its failure. Because it can help us to avoid the mistakes that might be arised.

After Webvan went bankrupt, it was purchased by Amazon and overcome all the mistakes that were occured before. For your information, you can kindly visit its website: http://www.webvan.com/

History and Evolution of E-commerce

2009-06-17T03:46:00.000-07:00

- E-commerce -

E-commerce is a history of new and virtual world which has been evolving. The main purpose of e-commerce >>> customer advantage. It’s not only benefited mankind but also the future generations.

In my mind, the meaning of e-commerce is all about shopping online. This is because we can shop anytime and anywhere. Besides that, everyone also can set up their own e-commerce site.
The “evolution” of the very old notion of “sell and buy” brings today’s e-commerce. We only need electricity, cables, computers, modems and the Internet, then e-commerce is in our hands.

The representatives of history of e-commerce are Amazon and EBay. They are the 1st companies that introduced electronic transactions. And now, there are 5 largest and most famous worldwide Internet e-commerce web: Staples, Amazon, Office Depot, Hewlett Packard and Dell.

Year 1970

With the help of the leading technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic transactions and also allowed business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation electronically

Year 1991
E-commerce officially became possible when Internet was opened for commercial use.

Year 1994
Although the Internet began to advance in popularity among the general public, but it also took about 4 years to develop the security protocols and DSL which allowed rapid access and a persistent connection to the Internet

Amazon.com, Inc, Seattle, Washington (USA). It was founded by Jeff Bezos and the one of the 1st American e-commerce companies that sells products online. (Amazon was the 1st adaptor of e-commerce)

Dell Inc, one of the companies that contributed much to the process of e-commerce development and launched as a static page

Year 1997
Dell.com became the 1st company to record a million dollars in online sales using unique strategy of selling goods over the World Wide Web with no retail outlets and no intermediaries. This business model is admired by a lot of customers and imitated by a great number of e-commerce businesses.

Year 2000
Many business companies in US and Western Europe used World Wide Web to represent their services and this also leads to the changes to the word of e-commerce.

The dot-com bubble happened (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble)

Although the dot-com collapse led to unfortunate results and many e-commerce companies disappeared, the “brick and mortar” retailers recognized the advantages of e-commerce and began to apply e-commerce as well.

The success case like Albertsons, the supermarket chains, used e-commerce to enable their customer to buy groceries online. (http://locator.albertsons.com/StoreLocatorAction.do?action=showZipEntry)

Amazon lost its position as a successful business model after the dot-com collapse.

Year 2001
Business-to-business (B2B) model was conducted, had around $700 billion in transaction

Year 2003
Amazon.com, Inc. made its 1st annual profit which was the first step to the further development.

Year 2007
E-commerce sales accounted for 3.4% of total sales.

Dell ranked by Fortune magazine as the 34th-largest company in the Fortune 500 list and 8th on its annual Top 20 list of the most successful and admired companies in the USA in recognition of the company’s business model, which is using an e-commerce business model.

Year 2008
Amazon.com is an example of a successful e-commerce business model that can attract about 615 million customers every year. Thus, this example leads to the booming of e-commerce websites.

The chart shows that the Estimated U.S Retail E-commerce Sales as a percent of total retail sales from year 1999 to year 2007

Here is a video clip about the Evolution of E-commerce from YouTube. ENJOY...

E-commerce became a very important part in the business world. As we can see from the chart, the total profit that generated from the whole world through e-commerce is increasing from year to year. Besides that, the new or young entrepreneurs can use e-commerce as one of the ways to start up a business as they wanted a pure play e-commerce website which does not need high capital requirement to set up compare to a brick and mortar business. Moreover, existing entrepreneurs can also expand their business by using e-commerce as well. Evolution of e-commerce has proven that e-commerce can be successful way to doing business. Furthermore, people who adopt e-commerce as their business strategy able manage their business in just anytime and anywhere.

Let's take Amazon as an example. Try it and you will know.

References:

Self-introduction---Thomas Wong

2009-06-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I am Thomas, Wong Wai Cheng. I am a 21 years old teenager who comes from a lovely small town--Batu Pahat, Johor. Batu Pahat is also known as “The City of Clothing”, since clothing related industry is the major industry in my hometown, so as my father who manufactures a clothe-tailoring factory.

Internet is considered as one of the most important technologies today, because it not only changes the style of doing business, but also significantly changes the lifestyle of people. It is true that internet has dominated my life, since it is so suffered for me to pass my day without internet.

Now, I would like to talk about my top 5 visited websites:
1) www.meetoto.goplayplay.com-- This is a webpage game which allows people to sing over there by using microphone and webcam. Since I am addicted with music (I am also a part-time café singer), so this website is so attracted for me, because I can share the music with others, and also meet a lot of music lovers.

2) www.google.com-- One of the best search engines in the world, it do help me to search variety useful information for my assignment or other use.

3) www.wikipedia.org-- This is an online encyclopedia which can help me to figure out any difficult terms that I face during my study. The most important thing is it is totally free!!!! Sounds cool right; can get the knowledge without spending any money.

4) www.ultimate-guitar.com-- This allows me to find many latest guitar tabs of pop-songs. It is free of charge too. So this website is very useful for me since most of website need to be paid in order to get the guitar tabs.

5) www.jbtalks.com-- This is a forum which discuss all the things in Johor. From this forum, I can know the news in my hometown even though I live in Kuala Lumpur now.

So, this is the brief introduction about me. For those who intend to know more about me, can kindly visit my personal blog: http://cheng12091988.spaces.live.com

About Me,Jimmy

2009-06-12T06:21:00.000-07:00

Hello, I’m Long Sheng Kiang (also can call me Jimmy) good nick name right, I’m 22 years old and come from Sungai Petani, Kedah. There is nice city because there have a lot handsome boys and beautiful girls including me. Are you agreed…? Just a joke, not think seriously but there have many beautiful girls (leng lui) is true. Actually I just normal guy, Let talks about my top 5 website visited are;

1)Google.This websites I always use because can search many things that I want especially doing assignment.
2)Yahoo. This is my second “search engine” when can’t search any think I want on Google. In fact I like Yahoo Taiwan website especially entertainment part because there have a lot new entertainment related China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
3)YouTube. It is a cool space to watch any clip u want and I away go this website watching Taiwan entertainment show such as Guess Guess Guess. I think all youth generation knows this show right.
4)The Star Online. It's a site where it provides news online and it keeps me up to date with the world.
5)Facebook. I visit to the websites is to know the latest news about my friends or play some application that provided in the facebook.

The Internet activities that I do are surf the web, download some video and song, chatting witch friend using MSN, checking e-mail, plying online game, and discuss some “hot topic” in forum.

About me, Liz Lee Chin Yee

2009-06-12T04:57:00.001-07:00

Liz Lee Chin Yee

Hi there, this is me. My name is Lee Chin Yee, also known as Liz, age 22. I am one of the blogger in this topic.
I am an ordinary student of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, at Sungai Long and from Entrepreneurship tutorial group 1.

In the free time, I used to surf net. There are some websites that i will visit them everyday!!

1. Facebook
2. Lowyat forum
3. My own blog
4. Youtube
5. MSN

I visit facebook to keep in touch with my friends as I came from Sabah and studying at Selangor. With Facebook, I can know what my friends recently doing and interact with them.

Besides that, I visit Lawyat Forum for forum discussion and check out the hot topic. I'm considered as couch potato. Hence, I will also shop online in Lawyat forum. In this forum we can found variety of product.

Next, is my own blog, which is http://cyee0304.spaces.live.com. I post my daily routine on it and I also use this way to interact with my friends. If you want to know me more feel free to visit my blog. Welcome to give some comments if you like to.. =)

Youtube!! I think most of the people like to visit it. I visit Youtube for entertainment to kill time. There are a lot of funny short movies on it.

MSN is my home page. I can read the news and also check out my emails. Besides that, MSN also provide search engine for the users. Thus, I can get a lot of general knowledge and also get I wanted to know.

That all for my self introduction. thank you...

(/.^^)/ have a nice day.. $^^,$

About one of the blog contributors, Edmond.

2009-06-12T00:23:00.000-07:00

Hi there, I’m one of the contributors of this blog and my name is Edmond. I live in Kuala Lumpur and I drive to the campus every day. For those who doesn’t quite know me yet, I’m a quiet yet a noisy person. I’m not going to explain in details but you to find out the rest about me. Speaking of blogging, this isn’t the first time I blog; I’ve been blogging since year 2005/2006. That was when I found blogging is interesting and hence, I decided to setup one. Incidentally, I’m setting up this one for the purpose of my assessment. For your information, you may visit at http://hikaru8703.spaces.live.com/ just in case if anyone of you may want to have a look at my personal blog.

One of the things I do most when I’m free is going online! Internet dominates my life, I mean, who doesn’t online? Perhaps there are some exceptions out there, but I strongly believed it has become a lifestyle of everyone’s. In order to catch up with the latest of the world, everyone has to go online, no doubt about it. It has not only become the way of people doing business in today’s world, but also a ‘place’ for us to ‘hang out’ and seek for leisure activities, knowledge information, and much more things, you name them.

As for me, these are the top frequently visited websites of mine. http://www.thestar.com.my/, http://www.nst.com.my/, http://www.google.com/, http://www.yahoo.com/, http://www.youtube.com/, http://www.mix.fm/, http://www.sgforums.com/. These are the sites I visit almost every day. I visit thestar.com and nst.com for daily updated news, including latest EPL’s news, and the citizen’s blog. Google and Yahoo are my best search engines; I’ve been using them all time for searching purpose. Needless to mention, Youtube is for interesting video clips or even some of the latest event shows recorded and posted by the users. Yes, Mixfm, my favourite radio station, I listen to the radio through going online and also in my car. Last but not least, Sgforums.com, I just enjoy visiting and reading it, you may give it a try and see if you like it.

I usually go online for information (almost for everything), news reading, chit chatting through messenger (WLM which was previously known as MSN), gaming (Garena server), and even have conference meetings through a software program called ‘Skype’ with my friends and assignment group members. That’s it about it; I’m looking forward to see the rest of the contributors to post about them.