Electronic commerce (EC), e-commerce is very common in today business world. It consists of buying and selling of products or services through the electonic system such as the Internet and other computer network. With the introduction of Internet, wide variety of commerce is conducted electronically grown drastically. It can involve electonic funds transfer, supply chain managemet, e-marketing, online marketing, etc.
For this research repot, we will be looking at 2 most competitive 2-Commerce website, i.e. eBay, an online marketplace, and Yahoo!, a portal.
What ever it is, you can get it on eBay, and shop victoriously
Founded in San Jose, California, USA (September 3, 1995)
Objective
- main objective: To promote a safe trading environment
- Support government laws and regulations
- Minimize risks to both buyers and sellers
- Provide equal opportunity to all buyers and seller
- Protect intellectual property rights
- Provide an enjoyable buying experience
- Support the values of the eBay Community
Features
- an online auction and shopping websites in which people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide.
- also owns PayPal, Skype and other businesses
- PayPal: acquired by eBay in October 2002. It enables securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online by any individual or businesswith an email address.
- Skype: world fastest-growing Internet communication offering. It allows people everywhere to make unlimited voice and video communication for free between the users of Skype software. It comes in 27 different languages and is used in almost every country around the world.
- shipping slightly faster and cheaper
- Community Content: eBay CommunityWiki, eBay Blogs, Discussion Boards, Groups, Answer Center, Chat Rooms and Reviews & Guides
- use feedback system to combat fraud, acknowledging some of the weaknesses that the system brings
- eBay Feedback: Feedback serves as reputation of users of eBay. Each eBay member has a Feedback score through positive, negative, and neutral ratings and comments. This allows distinction between the good trader and the not so good trader, an thus foster trust betwen people.
- mobile offering: SMS alerts, a WAP site, and J2ME clients
- offer several auction types:
- (1) auction-style listings: The seller can establish a reserve price. This auction type allows the seller to offer one or more items for sale for a specified number of days. The first bid must be at least the amount of the minimum bid set by the seller.
- (2) fixed price format: allows the seller to offer one or more items for sale at a Buy It Now price. Buyers who agree to pay that price win the auction immediately without submitting a bid.
- (3) dutch auctions: allow the seller to offer two or more identical items in the same auction. Bidders can bid for any number from one item up to the total number offered. Bidders can bid any amount greater than or equal to the minumum bid until the total number of items desired by all bidders equals the total number of items offered.
- eBay has established rules about bidding which can be viewed on its help pages.
Characteristics
- The World's Online Marketplace
- enabling trade on a local, national and international basis
- With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses
- eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day
- services and intengibles can be sold too
- so long it is not illegal and does not violate the eBay prohibited and restricted item policy, it can be put up for sale
- earliest days eBay was unregulated
- found that it is necessay to put restriction or forbid auctions of various items as it grew
- as a result, regional laws and regulations apply to seller or buyer
Analysis
- it will remove any auctions that violate its terms of service agreement within a short time upon hearing about it
- however, it is also an easy place for unsrupulous sellers to sell imitation mechandise, which are difficult for buyers to distinguish without careful reading of the item description
- eBay security center provides guidance on buying safely, selling safely, and paying safely, as well as valuable third-party, government and law-enforcement resources.
- Generates revenue from a number of fees.
- For example, The U.S.-based ebay.com takes $0.20 to $80 per listing and 5.25% or less of the final price (as of 2007).
Others
- rival include: Amazon.com marketplace
- Latin American partner: MercadoLibre
- expanded to almost two dozen countries including China and India but expansion failed at Tawain and Japan where Yahoo! had a head start
- eBay users were unhappy that it does not offer customer support by phone, users are refer to its online help features
- eBay allows users to donate part of their auction proceeds to a charity of choice (Charity Auction)
"Do you Yahoo!?"
Founded in Santa Clara, California (March 1,1995)
About
- Yahoo! is an American public corporation and global Internet services company.
- It is founded by Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994
- Starting as a hobby and evolved into a leading global brand that has changed the way peopele communicate.
- Incorporated on March 1995
- It is one of the most visited websites on the Internet according to Web traffic analysis companies
- Added an exclamation mark to the name in order to trademark it, however the exclamation mark is often ommited by user
Objective
- provide a wide array of internet services that cater to most online activities
- power and delights users, advertisers, publishers by creating indispenseable experiences and fuel by trust
- empower users and employees through programs, products and services that inspire people to make positive impacts to their communities
- start as a directory of other websites
- later, diversified into a web portal provider
- formed partnership with telecommunications and internet providers to create content-rich broadband services
Features
- Search engine: Yahoo! offer a diversified services. It provides search services such as Yahoo! Image, Yahoo! Video, Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! News, and Yahoo! Shopping Search.
- Communication: Yahoo! mail and Yahoo! Messenger. Yahoo! mail is the largest e-mail services in the world with almost half the market share. Yahoo! also offer social networking services and user-generated content in products such as My Web, Yahoo! Personals, Yahoo! 360° and Flickr
- Mobile: Yahoo! Mobile provide services for on-the-go messaging, information and fun and games. This includes email, instant messaging, and moblogging, search and alerts , ringtones, mobile games, and Yahoo Photos for camera phones
- One search: Yahoo! internet search system developed for mobile phone on March 20, 2007. oneSearch lists local theaters that at the moment are playing a certain movie, user ratings and news headlines regarding the movie instead of showing only some critical reviews, for example. Yahoo! oneSearch require a zip ocde or city name to deliver local search results. The results of a search are listed on a single page and are prioritized into categories.
- Commerce: Yahoo! offers commerce such as Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo Autos, Yahoo Real Estate and Yahoo Travel, which enables users to gather relevant information and make commercial transactions and purchases online.
- Small Business: Yahoo services such as Yahoo Domains, Yahoo Web Hosting, Yahoo Merchant Solutions, Yahoo Business Email, and Yahoo Store are provided to small business owners and professionals allowing them to build their own online stores using Yahoo's tools. Yahoo also offers HotJobs to help recruiters find the talent they seek.
- Advertising: Yahoo! Search Marketing let different businesses advertise their products and sevices in Yahoo! network by providing services such as Sponsored Search, Local Advertising, and Product/Travel/Directory Submit. Yahoo! Publisher Network is an advertising tool for online publishers to place advertisements relevant to their content to monetize their websites. Yahoo! launched Panama, ites new Internet advertisement sales system on February 5, 2007. It allows advertisers to bid for search term based on their popularity. The system takes many factors into consideration before determaining how ads are rank on the result earch pages. Yahoo! aims to provide more relevant search result to users through Panama.
Characteristics
- targets both business and consumers
- providing our users the power to connect, communicate, and create, gather and share information online.
- sponsor many charity programs
- Aspire to be flawless and do not take shortcuts on quality
- Flexible and learn from mistake
- Respect customers above all else
- Constantly seeking innovations and ideas that can change the world
- Anticipate market trends and move quickly to it
Analysis
- Yahoo! has been critized for funding spyware and adware.
- Yahoo! stated that the company will not protect the privacy and confidentiality of its Chinese customers from the authorities. Reports show that it is ironic that companies such as Yahoo!, whose existence depends on freedom of information and expression, take on the role of censor.
- Yahoo! 's image search was criticized for bringing up sexually explicit images even when SafeSearch was on. Yahoo! is made aware of this and is working resolve it as quickly as possible.
Others
- Charge 3% commession in taiwan auction causing market share drop and customer transferring to ebay
- About 88% of total revenues for the year 2006 came from marketing services
- The largest segment of the revenue comes from search advertising. Advertisers bid for search terms to display their ads on the search results, on average Yahoo! makes 2.5 cents to 3 cents from each search.
- Yahoo! aims to increase revenue generated from search with the new search advertising system "Panama".
A video documentary about the beginning of Yahoo!: Yahoo! Jerry and Dave's Excellent Venture.
