There are various explanations for the new thing of e-commerce. According to the brief definition of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), e-commerce is a commercial transaction between enterprises or between enterprises and consumers on an open network. According to our understanding, e-commerce refers to a new method, new means and new technology that uses the computer network (Internet/Intranet/Extranet) to exchange and process business or business information between interested parties and quickly complete daily business and business activities. Although telephone, fax and other electronic devices are also common means of business activities, e-commerce refers to all kinds of business activities and related activities based on computer networks, including the sum of the behaviors of online goods or services providers, consumers, advertisers, middlemen and other related parties.
E-commerce was originally translated from English Electronic Commerce(EC), but in recent years, the concept of e-commerce (EB) has appeared in Europe and America, and Chinese has also been translated into "e-commerce" (a few translated into "e-commerce"). The author thinks that there is a great difference between the English original intention of the two: Commerce refers to commercial and trade activities, such as wholesale and retail business, which often involves physical movements such as buying and selling goods, while pure labor intelligence services such as legal consultation and medical services, even paid services, are generally not called commerce; As a business, the meaning of business is much broader. All profit-oriented business activities, whether it is the sale of goods or the transaction of services, belong to its category. In addition, business also has the meaning of "cause", and various non-profit activities are also included, such as tax collection and social welfare distribution of government departments, school education and so on. Therefore, from e-commerce to e-commerce, it reflects that the application field of the Internet has been broadened, and its impact on social economy has been expanded and deepened. Since both are translated into e-commerce, the former can be regarded as e-commerce in a narrow sense and the latter as e-commerce in a broad sense. E-commerce in a broad sense is not only online trade, but also the comprehensive application of computer internet in various fields of society. The author believes that the understanding of the concept of e-commerce should be broader, so as to facilitate the exploration and research of Internet applications by all sectors of society.
For general business operation, e-commerce includes: business information exchange, pre-sales and after-sales service (providing product and service introduction and product use guide), sales, electronic payment (electronic fund transfer, credit card, electronic check, electronic wallet and electronic cash), transportation (online tracking of physical delivery and transportation and actual delivery of multimedia products that can be transmitted electronically by relying on barcode and password technology), and establishment of virtual enterprises.
Second, the emergence of e-commerce.
E-commerce is based on the mature development of the Internet. As early as 1969, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US Department of Defense established ARPANET for national defense research projects, connecting the computer systems of relevant universities, research institutions and national defense engineering contractors, which is the earliest computer internet; Since 1986, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has taken over the investment and expanded it into NSFNET, which is open to universities and scientific research institutions and used for non-profit teaching and research, and has become an important tool to promote the development of scientific research and education. 1992, the American government put forward the "information superhighway" plan, which further strengthened the financial support for the internet, lifted the ban on commercial applications, and paved the way for the development of e-commerce; Since 1995, the Internet backbone network has been supported by enterprises to realize commercial operation, and e-commerce has entered a stage of rapid growth.
Third, the development of e-commerce.
Looking back five years, in the mid-1990s, information superhighway, information economy and e-commerce seemed to be very abstract and distant concepts to us. Even in developed countries, many people think that they are just a mirage portrayed by politicians to win votes, or a trick played by businessmen to attract investors and consumers. Nowadays, not only enterprises and consumers in developed countries in Europe and America have actually realized the benefits and convenience brought by e-commerce, but even in developing countries like China, people have also felt the increasingly realistic and profound impact of the Internet and e-commerce on social and economic life.
The United States is the birthplace of the Internet and the most developed country in e-commerce, and still accounts for more than half of the global e-commerce transactions. Since 1992, the United States government lifted the ban on Internet commercial applications, the promotion of e-commerce and the expansion of the Internet are mutually causal and mutually reinforcing, forming a virtuous circle. With the encouragement and promotion of the government (for example, the concepts of "network year" and "e-commerce year" have been put forward one after another since 1997 to promote small and medium-sized enterprises and government departments to access the Internet), e-commerce has been rapidly popularized. According to a study completed by the University of Texas/kloc-0 in June, 1999, it is estimated that the Internet industry in the United States, which is dominated by e-commerce, has developed at an average annual growth rate of 174% in the past four years, and its sales revenue from198 is $3 billion1400 million, accounting for 4% of the gross domestic product of the United States. The research also shows that the Internet industry has provided the vast majority of new jobs, and the number of employed people has increased by 46% in the past year, from 1.6 million to 2.3 million.
The popularization and application of e-commerce is a process from primary to advanced, from simple to complex, and its influence on social economy is also from shallow to deep, from point to surface. From the online exchange of demand information, product advertising, online procurement or acceptance of orders, settlement, enterprises use e-commerce from small to large, until all business links are covered. From the perspective of specific business areas, it is also gradually developed and improved from less to more, such as electronic orders, electronic invoices, electronic contracts and electronic signatures in electronic trade; Online banking, electronic cash, electronic wallet and electronic fund transfer of electronic finance; Electronic entrustment, electronic receipt, online inquiry, etc. Online securities trading. Just like electricity a century ago, the Internet is completely changing the face of social e-life. Online schools, electronic libraries, online bookstores, electronic concert halls, online hospital, electronic communities, online dance halls, electronic chess and card rooms, online voting, e-government, online kindergartens, virtual shopping centers, the Internet and e-commerce are all having an impact and will increasingly become an indispensable part of people's lives. I believe in an electronic society (e
The rapid development of Internet and e-commerce has created new business miracles or myths. Amazon, AOL, Yi Bei, Yahoo, these new network enterprises, which were established only five, six or ten years ago, have grown from the initial investment of millions or tens of millions of dollars to the huge enterprises with market value of hundreds or even hundreds of billions of dollars, relying on the advantages of e-commerce and investors' love for network enterprises. At the end of 1999, AOL acquired a subsidiary of time warner Inc Inc. worth tens of billions of dollars, which initiated the annexation of established large enterprises by internet enterprises. People exclaim that the era of "eat quickly and buy slowly" has begun. At the end of February 2000, PCCW successfully acquired Hongkong Telecom, which is another outstanding example of "dim sum" and "eat slowly". Only 65,438+00 months after its listing, the company's share price soared from HK$ 0.68 to HK$ 20, which swallowed up the century-old Hong Kong Telecom with a market value of HK$ 3,654.38+0.5 billion. It is believed that in the commercial stage of 2 1 century, more exciting e-commerce market battles will be staged.