e-Business

E-business

• the internet is a powerful channel that present new opportunities for an organization to:
• touch customers
• enrich products and services with information
• reduce costs
• how do e-commerce and e-business differ?
• E-commerce - the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet
• E-business - the conducting of business on the internet including, not only buying and selling, but also serving customers and collaborating with business partners

E-business models

• business-to-business (B2B) 
• applies to business buying from and selling to each other over the internet
• electronic marketplace (e-marketplace) - interactive business communities providing a central market where multiple buyers and sellers can engage in e-business activities

• business-to-consumer (B2C)
• applies to any business that sells its products or services to customers over the internet
• common b2C e-business models include:
• e-shop - a version of a retail store where customers can shop at any hour of the day without leaving their home or office
• e-mail - consist of a number of e-shop, it serves as agateway through which a visitor can access other e-shops
• business types:
• brick and mortar busines
• pure-play business
• click and mortar business
• consumer-to-business (B2B)
• applies to any consumer that sells a prpduct or service to a ny business over the internet
• priceline.com is an example of a C2B e-busines model
• the demand for C2B e-business will increase over the next few years due to customer's desire for greater convenience and lower prices
• consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
• applies to sites primarily offerings goods and services to assist consumers interacting with each other over the internete bids from each other and prices 
• online auctions
• electronic auction (e-auction) - seller and buyers solicit consecutive bids from each other and prices are determined dynamically
• forward auction - sellers use as a selling channel to many buyers and the highest bid wins
• reverse auction - buyers use to purchase a product or service, selecting the seller with the lowest bid
• C2C communities include:
• communities of interest - people interact with each other on specific topics, such as golfing and stamp collecting
• communities of relations - people come together to share certain life experiences, such as cancer patients, senior citizens, and car enthusiasts
• communities of fantasy - people participate in imaginary environments, such as fantasy football teams and playing one-on-one with Michael Jordan

E-business benefits and challenges

• e-business benefits include: 
• highly accessible
• increased customer loalty
• improved information content
• increased convenience
• increased global reach
• decreased cost
• e-business challenges include:
• protecting consumers
• leveraging existing systems
• increasing liability
• providing security
• adhering to taxation rules
• there are numerous advantages and limitations in e-business revenue models including:
• transaction fees
• license fees
• subsciption feees
• value-added fees
• advertising fees

Mashups

• web mashups - a web site or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service
• appliation programming interface (API) - a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications
• mashups editor - WSYIWYGs (What You see Is What You Get ) for mashups