THE INTERNET AND E-COMMERCE

The Internet and e-commerce

The Internet and e-commerce

The general meaning of E-commerce is online trading. It is the way one does his business. More specifically it is a "general concept covering any form of business transaction or information exchange between organizations of various types, public administration and customers, using information and communications technology which promises to dramatically alter the structure and processes of commerce."1 To provide business online means that company can expands its market boundary and thus rise efficiency, competitiveness and profitability. Firstly there is a great need for installing proper infrastructure that would support it.

E-commerce is kind of subset of E-services, that is divided into E-commerce and E-business. While E-commerce could be understood as trading online, E-business represent just the same, only it is enriched of communication tools. There is a specific language for E-services called E-Speak - a language similar to html format. For the main support of E-commerce is considered E-banking - thanks to necessity to pay for things bought online. "Collaborative E-commerce is a term that describes the more complex interactions, that occur between trading partners when sourcing, negotiations and commitments and all is made via the Internet."2 With E-commerce are connected terms B2B and B2C.

There are some common historical steps that were following Internet´s development.

as a private technology with private uses - mainly army this could not be considered very commercial

an usage for academic purposes. The very beginning of public internet connections and thus the basis of commerce.

the first years of private technology and connections to internet. The beginning of usage for fun, media and communication. This step is considered to be during the 1994-6. A lot of today´s famous internet names that came into existence, such as Hotmail, Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, Lycos...etc.

this is the "age" of commercial rise. It considers time ...