E-bay
Internet shopping is still in. It takes a very good marketing strategy to actually make money out of selling items over the Web, but that doesn't stop lots of people from trying. The security of on-line shopping is still questionable, but as long as you are dealing with a reputable company or Web Site the risks are minimal.
Rabobank
At http:// you have access to your own Rabobank account, so you can check your transactions online. And also transfer money to another account.
Nuon
At you can shop online, you can request a proposal for free, find information about Nuon and about energy, gas etc. There is also a customer service so you can ask questions or contact Nuon.
Transavia
At you can look for a flight, book your flight, check in online, reserve a seats that you would like to have or you can change your flight.
Task 2.1:
Describe how the internet can be used for different types of business activity.
Task 2.2:
Describe the taking actions to reduce the inherent risk to security and reliability. You must describe all the items which are in the content 2.
Setting up an internet-linked computer
Equipment requirements and cost
To make use of the Internet, a business must invest. First of all, obviously, there will need to be hardware in the shape of PCs that connect to the web, using either cabling or wireless technology. The costs of these are falling and if a business buys in bulk then the costs can be reduced further. In addition to the PCs there are the costs of cabling, modems or routers, and printers as well as the software.
To connect effectively to the Internet for business purposes, there must be a ‘host’ for your website. This means that the site will be placed on a server, with its domain name and there will be costs associated with this. The price of a domain name is quite low, hosting services will depend on the kind of website it is. The average cost of a website in 2003 was quoted as £3000.
Risks of an internet connection
A business with only physical premises to look after still needs to consider security; a business that presents itself on the Internet immediately has many other forms of threat. When a business begins the process of transferring much of its operations online. It tends also to computerise most of its internal functions.
There are some annoying issues that can affect an online business at any time and these must be considered and monitored at the outset. These include:
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Spam: unrequested mail with mostly viruses in it. But it can be blocked easily by spam filters, which is mostly installed on your e-mail account.
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Spyware: this is software that installs itself on your computer and attempt you to buy things it is a kind of advertisement that comes back every 10 minutes so it is very frustrating. You can protect yourself from spyware by setting; internet options > tools > security options > medium or high
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Adware: Advertising that opens itself when you open an website that is infected with adware.
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Scams: for example: websites who wants business to re-register so that the owners of that page can find out everything about the company. So it is very dangerous so never do this. They are no programs to remove scams from the internet so be very alert.
Software programs consist of hundred lines of code that act as individual instructions for the computer. A ‘virus’ is a small piece of program code that is designed to enter computer systems and which then spreads to infect more and more files and systems. The virus spreads from computer to computer, carried by any sort of file that is transferred by portable disc or email attachment. Increasingly, in these days of global inter-connectedness, viruses spread very rapidly across the Internet.
Subtypes of virus:
Boot sector virus: this is a virus who attack your hard boot and is one of the most dangerously viruses because they can turn off your virus scanner or firewall before they run. And they can re-organize your complete pc. And infect also other parts of your computer such as floppies and other removable media.
Program infector viruses: are hidden in .exe files. So each time you run a application, such as word or Excel the virus loads itself in the system. This sort of viruses tend not to run as they should. If you have installed a antivirus program on your computer, warnings are given quite early than the program find the infection and that it is not smart to open the program so it is not a very dangerous virus.
Macro viruses: that is a virus that infect files from other files that run macro. For example: word is checking for spelling errors. Macro viruses can spread quite easily because it is rather than other programs. They are platform independent so can spread easily from one operating system to another.
Trojan Horse: maybe you know the story of Trojan. There is a war, and the army give a Horse to the enemy to solve the war and for their apologizes. In the horse are hidden hundreds of soldiers who come out at night and destroy the whole town. This is the same as the virus. You think it is a normal program, but after a while the virus comes out and infect your whole computer. If you have a good antivirus program the Trojan horse can be found easily. And automatically removed from your computer.
Worm: a worm is a rapidly itself recreating program that does not really infect other programs. But spreads across the web. Worms are hidden parts of a system and like all the other viruses the same mission: destroy the computer. But like the Trojan horse, if you have a good antivirus program the program will find and remove the worm from your system. So it is really very important that you have a good antivirus program. Such as Norton.
Protection against viruses
- You should have a good antivirus program for example Norton Protection Centre. This program is a antivirus, scanner and firewall in one so you can’t be better protect.
- You should make back-ups of your important data.
- With a Spam filter you don’t got junk mail anymore
- Anti spy software. This is mostly in your antivirus program. So you don’t have to buy another program. To protect you from spy ware.
Loss of data
E-businesses are seriously vulnerable to security breaches. This vulnerability can come as much from perception as from reality. Whatever kind of business is under discussion, wrongful access to information, falsely transferring funds, destruction of data, or other malicious attacks can happen in a number of ways; some of these are external threats and some can come from inside.
Cracking, hacking and bombing
Computing terminology is evolving and different computer interest groups worldwide have different preferences. Not so long ago ‘hacking’ would be taken to refer to unauthorized access and tinkering with computer systems for fun, in order to satisfy pure intellectual curiosity. But now a whole underground of hacker groups exists; some of them intending to do malicious damage, some merely in it for bravado and the technical buzz. Many hacker groups claim to operate for legal purposes some even claim to be force for good. These groups prefer the term ‘hacker’ to be seen as respectable, whereas a ‘cracker’ is the criminal. ‘Bombing’ is an activity in which large amounts of email are sent to an individual or organisation witch the aim of completely filling the recipient’s hard disc with immense, useless files.
Measures to reduce risks
To help reduce the risk to computer security, organisations can implement sensible procedural precautions, such as IT technicians switching off features that automatically open attachments to emails, ensuring that operating system updates are always installed and instructing staff about the dangers of opening email attachments from unknown senders. In addition to this, anti-virus software is also required.
Antivirus software
Antivirus software is software that protect you from viruses. The program search for viruses, try to identify virus, stop the virus and remove the virus. First your antivirus program will scan your computer on viruses. The program does have a list with viruses which can be updated every time there are new viruses discovered. The program scans your computer and tries to identify a virus with the list. If the program found a virus, it will stop and remove the virus before it can damage the computer. So a antivirus program is very important.
Firewall:
A firewall is like a wall, it blocks things. In this case it blocks hackers, spy ware, spam etc. It also blocks viruses so if you have a firewall and a antivirus program, you are very well protected and the change that a virus infect your computer is very limited.
Backing up data
A simple security measure is advisable for individuals as well as businesses is to ‘back up’ the data that is on the computer. A business that uses an intranet will have a lot of crucial data on file. Malicious hacking or loss of data can be very harmful to the organisation. Computer systems are often configured to automatically back up all data. This means creating a copy of all files and storing this separately. For individuals, backing up important data on CDs or other portable media such as a data stick, is good practice.
Use the internet for business resource
Demographics
Population statistics have an obvious influence on the online business. How many people are online, where are they, what are the trends? There are some use full services provided such as: if you look at this site you make better decisions because you are better informed about what is happening on the internet.
Competitor analysis
With a competitor analyze you can see how your competitor is doing and what he is doing. This is very important so you have a good view about your competitor. And know how and what he is doing.
Environmental analysis
If you make a environmental analyze you can see that some things affect your business such as the fuel price. And you can find out which factors have influence on the economy.
Legislation and specialist sites
In general, weather conditions , climate change, global population trends , political change in a region and the treat of the global terrorism are all of importance to some very significant industries. Businesses will also use specialist sites to get better information about the product they are looking for. Also for data of legislation that will affect them. Transport information for example.
Efficient use of search engines
Search engines are directories that list everything on the web. The most popular search engines for Personal use are:
For a business user is an automatic search of other search engines. So if you have a business Copernic is much more efficiently for something specifics than Google or Yahoo.
Use of internet for procurement
This are sites where you can buy products. Some suitable sites are:
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Comprehensive purchasing intelligence
→ this is a web store where you can order web services. Ranging from simple internet reports to data warehoused workbooks so you can measure the performance of your company and identify the most significant opportunities to save money.
→ provides purchasing activities which reduces irresponsible spending by staff and speeds up the buying process
→ enable users to find catalogue items quickly using a powerful text based search engine.
→ web-based applications can link suppliers and partners together and integrate the supply-chain.
→ web- based services can support dealings in multiple languages and currencies for businesses of all sizes, with services and support offered around the clock and around the globe.
- All products and services
→ manage procurement for any type of goods or service, whether in production or administrative support
Intermediary sites:
Procurement services are also offered via so called “intermediary” sites. These are websites that exist between buyers and sellers and bring them together. The web offers access to a number of business directories; these allows managers to check things out managers to check things out in their own markets and specialist areas. You can compare this with buying a house. You first go to the real estate agent. and he helps you to buy a house.
Security symbol
If you use the web it is smart to check the security symbol and the security settings that appears on the browser.
Secure payment methods
If a business opens a online web store, they will obviously hope to take credit card payments. In doing this there exist natural fears from both parties. Two web standards have been designed to try to make credit card payments secure on the internet. Unfortunately things can happen.
Legal protection and limitations
Anyone who sells anything online has to comply with the regulations of the E-commerce. At the heart of the regulations there are new information requirements.
- Adverts online must provide the full name of the business and contact details including geographic address.
- Prices must also give details of any associated taxes or delivery charges.
- If online activities are subject to VAT, the VAT number must be shown.
- Details of association with a trade or professional body must be shown.
If E-mail campaigns are used to promote goods or services, the regulations mean that the following must be observed:
- Make it unambiguous who the email is being send by.
- Any description of discounts or promotional offers must set out all the qualifying conditions.
- If email is unsolicited, it needs to be clear to the recipient that it is unsolicited without the recipient to open the email.
If customers can place orders online, there are some further things to do:
- It must be clear at what point in the ordering process a customer has committed themselves.
- Users must be able to view, store and print business terms and conditions.
- The business must acknowledge receipt of orders electronically and without undue delay.
Use the internet for promotion
Websites
some businesses simply wish to promote their activities on the Internet. They have no interest to actually transact or sell on the web. There are many businesses where having at least this basic level of web presence.
Banner advertising
Banner advertisement is placing a advertisement of your activities or product on a website so many people can see it. It is a click-through if you click on the banner you will be connected to the website of the company or person who placed the banner.
Below you can see a banner who is surrounded by a red line. If you click on the banner you will automatically transferred to the website of the banner.
Link registration
It is very important to register your website. Because more than 80 percent of the web users are known with search engines. So if someone want to find you website he or she will obviously use a search engine like Google or yahoo. If you don’t register your website, Google can’t find your website so that means that someone who is looking on the web for your company, can’t find your website with Google. So that can cost you many potential customers.
Direct Emails
Sending thousands of emails to unsuspecting people. The negative point about this is that maybe 50 people get interest and the other 9950 seeing this as spam. So the effect is negative for the company. The E marketers has to find a way to pass through the Spam filter. They use Opt-in Email. This means that the customers give permission to send them emails about services and/or promotions of the company. The reaction on this kind of email is positive. 67% of customers believed that the Opt-in emails definitely positively influenced their opinion about the company and 53% said that Opt-in email does have influence on what they purchase.
Use the internet for business communication
Email
Well, Email is a very quick way to communicate. You can use it in your company to send everyone a message. Email is nowadays one of the most used communication ways. It is possible to send one email to hundreds of people. You can also send a attachment with your email. Such as data or something. Email can also be used to spread viruses. So you have to open a Email always with a virus program.
Digital cameras and video images
The web is a quick and convenient way of sending digital photographs and video images. While these are very useful facilities, especially for businesses such as estate agencies, users need to treat digital cameras and the use of digital images with care.
Voice over internet protocol
Technology known as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) allows users to make phone calls over the internet network. Once they have the handset that you need, you can make phone calls national but also international. But you need a broadband internet connection. The only thing you pay for is for the internet connection. The person that you call does also need a broadband internet connection and the handset. The weird thing is that just 12% of 500 companies use the Voice over Internet Protocol. It saves lots of money, companies who use this saw their telephone bill drop by 23%.
Video conferencing
Video conferencing involves a range of technologies used in a wide range of situations. Sometimes it is not just video and audio being transmitted, but also data, allowing a business with multi-site operations the chance for collaborative working though shared applications. Video conferencing may be used in:
- One-to-one meetings, also known as point-to-point communications, involving full two-way audio and video
- One-to-many involving full audio and video broadcast from the main site, where other sites may be able to send audio.
- Many-to-many, known as multi-point communication, providing audio and video between more than two sites. With most multi-point systems only one site in a conference can be seen at time, with switching between sites either controlled manually or voice activated
For a business to set up video conferencing, the basic hardware components are:
- Camera
- Microphone
- Speakers
- Video board
- Connection to the internet.
Tesco
Tesco plc is a British-based international grocery and general merchandising retail sequence. It is the largest British retailer by global sales and domestic market share, and is the world's third-largest retailer, behind Wal-Mart of the United States and Carrefour of France.
Tesco now controls just over 30% of the grocery market in the UK, in 2007, the supermarket chain announced over £2.55 billion in profits and a large number of package houses; there are 109 in London only.
The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924. The name came about after Jack Cohen bought a shipment of tea from T.E. Stockwell. He made new labels using the first three letters of the supplier's name (TES), and the first two letters of his surname (CO), forming the word "TESCO".
Tesco is originally specialising in food, it has diversified into areas such as discount clothes, consumer electronics, consumer financial services, selling and renting DVDs, compact discs and music downloads, Internet service, consumer telecoms, consumer health insurance, consumer dental plans and budget software. It is now entering into the housing market, with a self-advertising website called Tesco Property Market.
Tesco Property Market provides loads of possibilities on the Internet. Grocery & Wine.
Entertainment, Finance and Insurance, Insurance,
environment and health are examples of what you can find. You can also make accounts on Tesco; they have club cards credit cards and baby cards which can give you discount. But this is not all you can find here, they even give advice for weight problems. Tesco has a lot of warehouses, there are 109 stores in London only
Components on the Tesco site and their subjects:
Task 3.1:
Describe the competitive forces on 2 selected contrasting business organizations to develop or update their use of e-business.
A survey in 2006 on e-business trends in manufacturing by SVM showed that
- 78% of manufactures intended to increase spending on their website.
- 60% intended to increase investment in email marketing.
- 48% were boosting spending on search engine marketing.
- 25% were reducing spending on magazine advertising.
- 17% were reducing spending in trade shows
The evidence is strong that businesses are taking up internet opportunities in many Sectors. As the SVM survey clearly shows, one of the key areas of take up is in marketing.
Marketing benefits
The internet helps company to acquire a good knowledge of customers because it is a way of connecting everyone who is online. If you take a look on the site clicksz.com you will see that the worldwide internet population in 2005 was 1.08 billion.
The internet population will still grow but not as fast as the last years. As more of the newly developing world (China, Russia, Eastern block and maybe also Africa) come online. The number of users will continue grow and more importantly so will the frequency of use and the time spent online. Technological improvements and increasing use of broadband will almost guarantee this.
Re-formulating the marketing mix
Traditional marketing uses the base of the marketing mix:
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
- Product
Internet marketing uses a remix of these, named the E-marketing remix. It exist of:
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1. → Product
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2. → Price
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3. → Place
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4. → Promotion
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5. → People
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6. → Physical evidence
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7. → Processes
These marketing factors designed to market a web-based business.
24-hour global presence and flexible location.
The use of internet in marketing means that products may be displayed and offered online 24 hours a day, all over the world. Catalogue will be made available showing images and giving full details. Promotion can happens 24 hours a day using search engine marketing and Banners.
Personalization and feedback.
If you order something at Marktplaats.nl, you have to personalize the settings. The next time you order something at Marktplaats.nl you’re settings will automatically be loaded by Marktplaats. You can also give feedback on advertisings of other people. So if you know something about the product, you can give other people information about the product.
Opportunities for competitor analysis.
On the internet you can precisely detect what your competitors are doing online. Each business that goes online immediately becomes open and transparent. Marketing activities need to keep a close eye on the tactics, ideas and offerings of competitor businesses. The site of the business of the competitor can be used as primary source of information. The idea is not to copy the website of the competitor but to detect the strategy of the company.
Opportunities to communicate with customers.
If you register yourself on a internet website, you allow businesses to capture your contact details. The try to communicate with you by e-mails, news bulletins and some types of software.
Cost benefits
Premises and location
The internet gives immediate geographic spread, without the need for relocation. If a business does have the plans for grow, they should try the web. Because this can save capital costs. The business sells their stuff online so you don’t have to invest in physical premises.
Reduced staffing costs.
If a business sell their stuff online it means that all the employees who are usually keeping and register lots of paperwork not longer needed, because the customers register their names and phone numbers etc. and they will automatically be saved in the system.
Cash flow advantages.
A Business depends on a good cash flow. Cash flow refers to the stream of revenue that comes into a business from sales activities so that the working capital can be maintained. Many businesses fail because of a poor cash flow.
Disintermediation of the supply chain.
Everything has to come from somewhere. A business that makes cars depends on businesses that makes parts of a car. Supply chain refers the way which raw materials and parts find their way to the customer.
Benefits to customers
The internet offers a vast range of products and services to customers. These products and services are accessible 24 hours a day, from anywhere. Customers are now able to choose products from a wider range of businesses, irrespective of their location.
Personalized offers
Supermarkets are using the same tactic as Amazon like you can see a few pages ago. If you shop by the website of a supermarket, you can fill in your shopping list and order it. The next time you visit the web page, your last shopping list is still in the system, very useful.
Operational implications of trends
Expectations and product fulfillment
If your business possess a high-Quality website, you can give your company a real advantage over rivals. So it is very important to have a good website with your products and your brand, so that people remember your name.
Customer expectations
Customers who are shopping online have a high expectation, they expect that all links on the site will work, and a minimum of annoying pop ups. The website have also to be up-to-date.
Increased competition
If a business good online, it open all the doors for the competitors, they can see your prices, promotion campaigns and offers. So the competition increase immediately.
New providers of old services
In some businesses organizations there has been changed a few things, by the fact that the business is now operating on a new market on the web. For example, Tesco. Tesco is now offering music downloads from its website.
Strategic implications of trends on organizations
Competitive pressures
The growing volume of online trading, and the increasing tendency for businesses to use web based information technology is increasing competitive pressures. Below we’ve outlined a number of areas.
The web based business is faced with every competitive pricing. A recent survey by sage showed that in 2005 most businesses expected a squeezed on profits caused by increased price competition.
When it comes to competitive pressures on business, access to quality staff is still top of the list according to the sage report. The web creates a fiercely competitive requirement environment.
Relocations, take-overs, closures and mergers.
When firms face declining market share, and are unable to complete, there is a tendency to look for ways of strengthening the position. This can include relocation and sometimes take-overs by or of another business. The extreme response is to close an outlet altogether; alternatively, mergers with other firms can sometimes create a stronger business, better able to complete.
Refocusing business.
Some business activities have been completely changed in order to take up internet opportunities.
Implications of trends on customers
The internet offers a great opportunity for those who have the skills and understanding, or the cash, to be able to take advantage. For those who doesn’t have these opportunities, there is disadvantage. Many people mostly they are already poor or socially disadvantaged in some other way, cannot or do not have the access to the new technology and the opportunities they bring.
Describe the competitive forces on 2 selected business organizations to develop or update their use of E-business.
For this examination I’ve used the Rabobank and my community Ommen.
You can see in following pages that I have explained all the things which are called in the content. Now I apply the conception to the Rabobank and community Ommen.
At first I’ll work on the Rabobank.
24-hour global presence and flexible location.
The Rabobank website; is open 24 hours a day. For money transactions and info about your bank account. If you want to log in, you need a Random reader. This device gives you a code, which you can login with. You have to insert your rabocard in the random reader, after that you have to insert your pin code. Now will the random reader give you a login code.
Personalization and feedback.
If you login once on rabobank.nl, the Rabobank will remember your name. you just have to fill in your password that appears on your random reader. Now you can see your transaction history. And place new transactions, you can also check your bank credit
Opportunities for competitor analysis.
The Rabobank has detect a new market, because online banking is new and very useful. The Rabobank doesn’t really promote online banking because people hear of other people that you can also banking online, Rabobank does promote internet banking on your cell phone. But competitors like Postbank are also use this method of online banking. So competitors can see the whole strategy of Rabobank.
Opportunities to communicate with customers.
It isn’t necessary to register yourself on Rabobank. Because you can only use internet banking if you are a customer of Rabobank. But you can register yourself for news bulletins of Rabobank.
Cost benefits
Premises and location
The Rabobank does have thousands of locations but now the Rabobank also available is on the web, the customers are getting service online and can transfer money to other people online. So that mean that the Rabobank can save money by firing employees who aren’t necessary anymore.
Reduced staffing costs.
See premises and location
Disintermediation of the supply chain.
The Rabobank deserve services instead of goods. But they need money to run. Because if they don’t have money, they can’t give people loans.
Benefits to customers
The internet offers a vast range of products and services to customers. These products and services are accessible 24 hours a day, from anywhere. Customers are now able to choose products from a wider range of businesses, irrespective of their location.
Personalized offers.
At Rabobank you don’t have personal offers but you can for example transfer money to somebody the next day at a arranged time, also if you aren’t online.
Operational implications of trends
Expectations and product fulfillment
The Website of Rabobank is very stylish en modern. They make is also very logical and handy. You can choose for a personal guide who lead you through the options and explain how you have to use the website.
Customer expectations
In my opinion the site of Rabobank is always up to date and if they have to change something and the server will be offline, they change it so quickly as possible between 2.00 AM and 5.00 AM but this is not very often. Once a month mostly.
Increased competition
Of course the competition between Rabobank and Postbank is growing since the beginning of the website. Because you can now find out the strategy of the competitor, what is very important to fix your strategy on the strategy of the competitor.
New providers of old services
2 years ago nobody did hear of Internet banking. You could find information about the Rabobank, such as the history. But now the purpose of the site is completely different. Before the internet banking was the purpose just to inform and attract people to the Rabobank. Now the main purpose is internet banking.
Now I’m going to work on my own community Ommen.
24-hour global presence and flexible location.
The site of Ommen is always open. At first you can chose in a menu: Inhabitants, entrepreneur, visitors or organizations. You can find information about buildings and other things. They don’t sell any stuff online. You just can find information and if you can’t find where you are looking for, you can send a e-mail to a contact person of the community.
Personalization and feedback.
You can’t login at Ommen.nl every time you visit the website you’ll see the same page so this means that you can’t personalize the site.
Opportunities for competitor analysis.
The website of Ommen doesn’t have any competitors. There’s no reason for a competition because they don’t sell a product or something. On the other hand, other communities can copy some things of the website, that’s the only little negative point about a website.
Opportunities to communicate with customers.
You can subscribe yourself to news facts of community Ommen. So you are always up to date about Ommen.
Cost benefits
Premises and location
Before the lancing of the website Ommen.nl, you had to go to the city hall if you want some information about the city. So now they have more time for other stuff for the community instead of helping people, the rush at the city hall took away.
Reduced staffing costs.
The city hall of Ommen can deal now with less employees because almost every questions of customers can fixed online. That means that the city hall needs less employees.
Benefits to customers
The internet offers a vast range of products and services to customers. These products and services are accessible 24 hours a day, from anywhere. Customers are now able to choose products from a wider range of businesses, irrespective of their location.
Personalized offers.
There’s nothing personal at Ommen.nl.
Operational implications of trends
Expectations and product fulfillment
The website of Ommen is re-styled. They improved the functions and made the site more logical and stylish, everything is clear. They have a sitemap where you can find all the subjects about Ommen or you can search the things you can’t find by ‘search’.
Customer expectations
The customers of Ommen.nl expect information about Ommen and their activities.
Increased competition
There’s no competition increased since the beginning of the website between Ommen and other communities. It’s a informative site so there are no needs to start a competition with anything.
New providers of old services
The things you usually should do at the city hall can you do now at the internet and that is very smart and handy, it saves a lot of work for employees.
Task 4.1
Describe, with using examples, how the government, business organizations and individuals plan for the growing use of E-business.
Government:
Which are the five most-wired nations in the world today? We have short-listed five countries that are leaders in the wired revolution, with soaring tech innovations and a rapidly multiplying Internet community. We have looked at various parameters to arrive at the select some.
We have taken into account the Information Society Index (ISI) 2004, IDC's annual study, which evaluates the information wealth of 53 countries around the world. It combines 15 variables in four infrastructure pillars (computers, the Internet, telecommunications and social factors) to calculate and rank each nation's ability to access and utilise information and information technology. We have also considered the 'E-readiness' rankings for 2004, prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit of The Economist and IBM's Institute for Business Value, based on several factors including e-business climate, Internet connectivity, penetration of hot spots, technology infrastructure and policy environment.
However, keep in mind that estimates of broadband households vary among and the available rankings are dynamic in nature.
SINGAPORE
Population (millions): 3.54
Area: 683 sq km
Capital City: Singapore
Internet users (millions): 2.13 as of Sep 04 (60.2 percent penetration)
Broadband subscribers: 392,000 as of Dec 03
A global hub in Asia, Singapore is a kind of bellwether for the introduction of new technology, and is one of the most wired countries in the world.
Singapore ranks first in the Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005. Also, in the 2004 Annual E-readiness rankings by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Singapore emerged as the top country for Asia-Pacific. The island nation is also the second most wired country in the world, behind only the United States, according to the Networked Readiness Index rankings for 2004.
Singapore's strategic location has made it one of the most attractive business areas in Asia. It is situated within ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), which represents a combined market of more than 500 million people. One of the world's most prosperous countries with the lowest rates of corruption, Singapore is a role model for its neighbours.
With the one of the most wired populations on earth, Singapore is ideal to initiate e-commerce and Internet marketing operations. Both the government and the IT industry work closely towards developing Singapore's reputation as Asia's most connected city. Singapore also has an 'Internet Code of Practice,' as a schedule to the Singapore Broadcasting Authority Act.
Singapore is host to more than 6,000 multi-nationals and its financial sector is well-plugged internationally. The high-tech and financial services industries are lightly regulated, and telecom was privatised in 2000.
Consider PSA Corporation, the company that developed and operates the port of Singapore, uses the Computer Integrated Terminal Operations System (CITOS, a proprietary ERP application) and Portnet, an e-business system that provides paperless one-stop shipping for the port and its customers. The port handles 250 shipping lines with connections to 600 ports in 123 countries, and daily sailings to every major port on the globe. Today, Singapore's port enjoys first-mover status as the world's IT leader in seaport logistics and operations.
An early adopter of broadband technology and an innovator in broadband applications, Singapore is a world leader in broadband rollout and benefits from strong government-industry cooperation. Singapore has hundreds of broadband access points in homes, educational institutes, offices and in public.
DENMARK
Capital City: Copenhagen
Population (millions): 5.4
Households (millions): 2.5
Country Area: 43,093 sq km
GDP ($million): 215, 029
IT Spending ($million): 7,432
Internet Users (millions): 3.72 as of March/05, 68.7 percent penetration
Broadband subscribers: 462,000
The erstwhile seat of Viking raiders, Denmark has evolved into a modern, prosperous nation. A small country of islands, located in Northern Europe, Denmark has an advanced broadband infrastructure and one of the highest levels of broadband penetration services in Europe.
In fact, Denmark displaced Sweden as the information champion in the IDC Information Society Index (ISI) 2004. In comparison with the US, Denmark emerged a winner, primarily due to a lead in the telecom variable--notably wireless subscribers--and high user penetration and mobile Internet users.
Almost 69 per cent of the Danish population accesses the Internet, with 84 per cent connecting from home, 22 per cent of households are using broadband while the total mobile subscriber penetration in Denmark has reached 60 per cent. Even the EIU and IBM's Institute for Business Value in its 2005 business environment rankings has proclaimed Denmark to be the best place in the world to conduct business over the next five years. Denmark maintained its number one position from the 2004 e-readiness rankings when measured by the nearly 100 quantitative and qualitative criteria that IBM and the EIU established for the survey.
According to the Computer Industry Almanac Inc., Denmark is among the leading countries in computer and Internet penetration, and estimates that, as of 2004, there are 682 surfers per 1,000 Denmark residents, compared to 649 in Australia; 641 in Canada; 611 in Japan; 570 in the UK; and 628 in the US.
Denmark has it all--highly developed infrastructure and institutions, a skilled labour force, low inflation rates, political and economic stability and sophisticated financial sector. The liberal market access is underlined by the privatisation of the telecoms sector. High public spending has resulted in widespread availability of high-speed internet connections, an extensive telephone network and well-run utilities, essential for technology intensive industries.
In 2004, the market was characterised by high penetration levels in voice and data services, including WAP and GPRS. There is increased price competition with four main operators-Tele Denmark (TDC), Sonofon, Telia and Orange, and numerous resellers in the market. Its highly educated and mostly urban population takes easily to new technologies, and has made Denmark a test-bed for new products. Wireless Internet connections and WAP telephony, amongst others, were launched in Denmark, and the consumers' reactions were used for benchmarking.
Further progress is expected over the next five years, as the government has promised to boost spending on research and development and facilitate the creation of knowledge industries clusters.
CANADA
Population (millions): 32.5
Area: 9,976,137 sq km
Capital City: Ottawa
GDP ($million): 892,062
IT Spending ($million): 25,226
Internet users: 20,450,000 (as of Dec 03; 63.8 per cent penetration)
Broadband subscribers (million): 5.2 (as of Dec 04)
Canada has one of the highest rates of Internet usage and broadband adoption in the world. Canada ranked fifth on the Information Society Index published by research firm IDC this year. Canadians are heavy Web users, with 90 per cent using e-mail at least weekly.
Residential broadband access enjoyed continued growth in 2004 as the increase in dial-up accounts slowed. There were around five million residential broadband subscribers in 2004, amounting to 67 per cent of Internet users.
Broadband deployment continues to progress under active government encouragement, with 85 per cent of Canadians now living in communities served by high-speed Internet access. Both cable modem and DSL services are achieving high levels of penetration. At the same time, anti-spam/virus software company, Sophos, ranked Canada as the fourth high-spamming nation in the world in November 2004 with 5.7 per cent spam originating from Canada.
According to a Broadband and Consumer E-Commerce in Canada (Dec 2004 Review) by Internet World Stats, Cable TV subscriptions have declined over the past few years as DTH satellite services have become more popular due to better pricing and a greater range of services.
The 2004/2005 Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Canada Report by BuddeComm indicate almost 43 per cent of Canadians use a wireless device. In 2005, operators may move towards 3G services to complement existing Wi-Fi offerings. The IP-VPN services have also increased with the proliferation of broadband access. VoIP is growing steadily in Canada.
The federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) sets out a number of rules for protecting personal information. The Government of Canada launched an Anti-Spam Action Plan in May 2004. The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) operates the dot-ca Internet country code Top Level Domain. In fact, there are more than 530,000 .ca domain names already.
SWEDEN
Population (millions): 9.04
Households (millions): 4.04
Country Area: 449,965 sq km
GDP ($million): 310,201
IT Spending ($million): 10,918
Capital City: Stockholm
Internet Users: 6,656,716 (as of Feb 05; 73.6 per cent penetration); 693,000 broadband subscribers (as of Dec 02)
Another Scandinavian nation, Sweden has one of the world's highest life expectancies and one of the lowest birth rates. This year, the EIU named this Nordic nation of nearly nine million people as best-in-class in key areas of connectivity, such as mobile penetration and Internet use, and a standard setter in e-government implementation. In the EIU's annual survey of the e-business environment in 65 countries, Sweden was outperformed only by Denmark and the US. A world-class technological hub, Sweden ranked second in the Information Society Index by IDC in 2004. Sweden has the world's highest penetration of Internet access, the highest usage of mobile phones, and a very high level of Internet and computer skills among business managers. For instance, Sweden has the highest business penetration rate for both Microsoft Windows and Apple OS.
The country is also the world's most advanced testing ground for a range of mobile commerce applications. The GSM, WCDMA, EDGE and Bluetooth technologies were all invented in Sweden. A gadget loving populace, the Swedes have successfully used the Internet to enhance business transactions, and incorporated the medium into their daily routines, while the government has driven development.
Sweden is advanced in the deployment of wireless infrastructures, including 2G, 2.5G, 3G and WLAN. The country's WCDMA 3G mobile infrastructure covers over 70 percent of the population, state wireless consultants Northstream.
This year, according to an article in Computer Sweden, Sweden has become the first country in the world to introduce an open standard for electronic identification via mobile phones, enabling consumers to do their banking business, file their tax forms or even vote by simply using a mobile phone. Behind the service is BankID, an alliance of Swedish banks, telecom operators and the telecom equipment supplier Ericsson.
Incidentally, Sweden is the only country in the world to have more mobile phones than inhabitants. This is thanks to lower calling costs than any other European country!
Sweden is the most tech savvy country in Europe according to a new report by Jupiter Research (2005), a US market analysis firm, which said the use of digital products such as cell phones, televisions, Internet equipment and cameras was highest in Sweden and its fellow Scandinavian countries Denmark and Norway.
In 2005, one in three Swedes filed their annual tax returns electronically-double the 2004 figure-according to Swedish Inland Revenue service Skatteverket. Of the 6.5 million tax forms due by the May 2 deadline, 2.1 million were received via the Internet, text message or mobile phone.
The United States of America
Population (million): 296
Households (million): 113.7
GDP ($million): 11,501,766
IT Spending ($million): 395,070
Area: 9,629,047 sq km
Capital City: Washington D.C.
Internet users (M): 200.9 as of Feb 05 (67.8 per cent penetration); 69,431,802 broadband users (as of Dec 04)
The US ranked third on the Information Society Index of IDC, 2004 and ranked second on 'e-readiness' (by EIU, 2005), moving up from sixth place last year. This land of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers scored the highest for computers based on PCs per household and software spending, steadfast in its position as the world's largest consumer of computer products and services. The US also ranked higher this year because of secure Internet server penetration, overall spending on IT and growth in broadband adoption.
There has been continued growth in broadband penetration in the US, which remains the world's leading broadband usage country with 31.7 million lines in the third quarter of 2004. The number of broadband users increased 36 per cent in 2004, accounting for 55 per cent of the total at-home users by the end of 2004, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings.
Nearly three out of four US households with a phone line have access to the Internet, according to a February 2004 Nielsen/Net Ratings survey. At workplaces, of those connected to the Internet, 77.2 per cent enjoy a high-speed connection.
About one-third of the wireless services budget in the US is now dedicated to data, indicating its increasing importance in the business environment. The vast majority (91 per cent) of US companies use wireless data either on a limited or a widespread basis. According to research group Point Topic, the total number of US DSL (digital subscriber line) subscribers is growing, but still lags behind the country's 19 million-plus cable modem subscribers. The US added 3.2 million new DSL subscriptions, for a total of 12.6 million by the end of September 2004.
In July 2004, residential broadband connections overtook the use of slower, dial-up connections for the first time. With the growing use of e-mail, 'spam' (unsolicited e-mail) is also rising, which is costing US businesses billions of dollars in screening equipment and lost productivity. The US continues to lead the world in originating spam attacks; accounting for over two out of every five (42.1 per cent) spam e-mails sent throughout the world says anti-spam/virus software company Sophos.
The US Federal Government awarded $155 billion in IT-related program contracts in 2004, a 60 per cent increase over the $95 billion it awarded in 2003, according to INPUT, a government spending watchdog.
organizations think about the internet future of their company:
For this examination I will do research in different businesses and find out which kind of organizations are making the most use of internet.
The use of internet will grow in the next years. About a few years we can’t do anything without internet. Companies are making the last years more use of internet. Companies are also using internet for marketing. Banners and advertisement. In the record below you can see which companies in Holland are the biggest users of internet advertisement.
[biggest internet advertisers, source: Marketing Tribune]
The reason why these companies are using the internet for marketing purposes is because the sectors of these companies are perfect to sell goods and services over the internet. And a big positive point about advertise on the internet that can measure immediately your profit. And that is impossible by advertisement on other media.
Maybe you want to know how these people measure the profit of their website. That is very simple: they have software which can see how many people visit your site. And with the software you can see how many profit your advertising campaign produced.
In the future are going to use more companies advertising by short movies. For example: maybe you have seen movies on the internet or TV about chatman. That was a marketing campaign of KPN/HI. People recognize chatman and every time they see chatman on the internet as a banner or something people think: Hé that is chatman. Chatman had a honey bee costume. That costume was a bestseller at Carnival.
Also the Web stores are growing in the Netherlands you can find more information in the record below.
Also the websites, domains and host are growing in the last few years. The rise really started between 1998 and 2001. And on this moment the rise of internet use and websites is even bigger.
Individual use of internet:
As you can see in the record above is the use of internet by individuals growing really fast. So if you imagine how many people will use the internet in about ten years is unbelievable.
Some People are using the internet to make money by invest money. On the next record you can see the population of invest.
If you look at the record you can see that invest money becomes more popular. And if we take a look again at the record of internet marketing we can see that advertising campaigns about invest money, are enormous popular on the internet. And investing money becomes still more popular.
In the next table you can see how many people in Europe are using the internet.
The internet percentage of internet users will grow very rapidly. In my opinion is it smart if even older people do a internet or computer course. Because in a few years almost everything will go on the internet.
My sources
http://www.answers.com/topic/internet-technology?cat=technology
http://
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
BTEC national business book 1 || 2nd edition
