HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF

ECONOMICS AND FINANCE

CHAPTER 1
HOME ASSIGNMENT REPORT

E-COMMERCE 2020
BUSINESS. TECHNOLOGY. SOCIETY
221.BUS1104E.A04E

Group 5
Lecturer: Tran Thanh Cong

Ho Chi Minh, Viet Nam

29 September 29, 2022
 Group members
Student Name Student’s ID Tasks Contribution
Nguyễn Lê 205141938 Question 1,2,3,4 10/10
Phương Thảo
Lê Nguyễn 205017550 Question 5,6,7,8 10/10
Hồng Nga
Hà Huỳnh Ánh Ngọc 205084101 Question 9,10,11 10/10
Ông Chí Cường 195013680 Question 12,13,14 10/10
Nguyễn Hữu Nghĩa 195010194 Question 15,16,17 10/10
Bùi Thị Thúy Ngân 1950111320 Question 18,19,20 10/10

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 Questions
1. What does omni-channel mean in terms of e-commerce presence? ............................................... 4

2. What is the deep web? ........................................................................................................................ 4

3. What are some of the unique features of e-commerce technology? ............................................... 4

4. What are some of the factors driving the growth of social e-commerce? ...................................... 5

5. Why is it likely that the Internet and e-commerce are entering a period of closer regulatory
oversight? ..................................................................................................................................................... 5

6. How does the ubiquity of e-commerce impact consumers?............................................................. 6

7. What impact does the increased interactivity provided by e-commerce technologies have on
business? ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

8. What difficulties are presented in trying to measure the number of web pages in existence? .... 7

9. Why is the mobile platform not just a hardware phenomenon? .................................................... 7

10. What is conversational commerce and how does it relate to m-commerce? ................................. 7

11. Describe the three different stages in the evolution of e-commerce. .............................................. 8

12. Define disintermediation and explain the benefits to Internet users of such a phenomenon.
How does disintermediation impact friction-free commerce? ................................................................ 9

13. What is the difference between a PWA and a regular app? ........................................................... 9

14. What is driving the growth of social e-commerce? .......................................................................... 9

15. Discuss the ways in which the early years of e-commerce can be considered both a success and
a failure. ..................................................................................................................................................... 10

16. What are five of the major differences between the early years of e-commerce and today’s e-
commerce? ................................................................................................................................................. 11

17. How do the Internet and the Web fit into the development of corporate computing? ............... 11

18. Why is the term “sharing economy” a misnomer? ........................................................................ 13

19. What are those who take a technical approach to studying e-commerce interested in? ............ 13

20. What have been some of the surprises that have occurred in the evolution of e-commerce? .... 14

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 1. What does omni-channel mean in terms of e-commerce
presence?
➢ The advent of the term “omni-channel” signals the evolution of multi-
channel or cross channel retailing to encompass all digital and social technologies. The
idea is that customers can examine, access, purchase, and return goods from any
channel, even change channels during the process, and receive timely and relevant
product information at each step along the way and in each channel.

2. What is the deep web?

➢ The deep Web contains databases and other content that is not routinely
identified by search engines such as Google. Although the total size of the Web is not
known, what is indisputable is that web content has grown exponentially since 1993

3. What are some of the unique features of e-commerce

technology?
• Ubiquity: E-commerce technology is available everywhere: at work, at

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home, and elsewhere via mobile devices, anytime
• Global reach: The technology reaches across national boundaries, around the
earth.
• Universal standards: There is one set of technology standards.
• Richness: Video, audio, and text messages are possible.
• Interactivity: The technology works through interaction with the user
• Information density: The technology reduces information costs and raises
quality
• Personalization/Customization: The technology allows personalized
messages to be delivered to individuals as well as groups
• Social technology: User-generated content and social networks

4. What are some of the factors driving the growth of social e-

commerce?
➢ Factors that are driving the growth of e-commerce including increasing
popularity of social sign-on (signing onto websites using your Facebook or other social
network ID), network notification (The sharing of approval or disapproval of products
services, and content) online collaborative shopping tool, social search
(recommendations from online trusted friends) and the the increasing prevalence of
intergrated social commerce tools such as Buy buttons, Shopping tabs, marketplace
groups, and virtual shops on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Yutube, and other social
networks.

5. Why is it likely that the Internet and e-commerce are

entering a period of closer regulatory oversight?
• Because the Internet and the Web are exceptionally adept at tracking the
identity and behavior of individuals online, e-commerce raises difficulties for preserving
privacy—the ability of individuals to place limits on the type and amount of information

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collected about them, and to control the uses of their personal information.
• Because the cost of distributing digital copies of copyrighted intellectual
property— tangible works of the mind such as music, books, and videos—is nearly zero
on the Internet, e-commerce poses special challenges to the various methods societies
have used in the past to protect intellectual property rights
• The global nature of e-commerce also poses public policy issues of equity,
equal access, content regulation, and taxation. For instance, in the United States, public
telephone utilities are required under public utility and public accommodation laws to
make basic service available at affordable rates so everyone can have telephone service.
• Abstract: The internet and e-commerce are entering a phase of stricter legal
supervision, firstly to protect the privacy and identity of each individual. The second is
to protect intellectual property rights from real life to the virtual world to avoid stealing
ideas. Finally, the government can easily collect taxes from businesses more easily.

6. How does the ubiquity of e-commerce impact consumers?

➢ From a consumer point of view, ubiquity reduces transaction costs—the costs
of participating in a market. To transact, it is no longer necessary that you spend time
and money traveling to a market. At a broader level, the ubiquity of e-commerce lowers
the cognitive energy required to transact in a marketspace. The benefits can be included:
o Customer convenience is enhanced
o Shopping costs are reduced

7. What impact does the increased interactivity provided by e-

commerce technologies have on business?
• E-commerce technologies allow for interactivity, meaning they enable two-
way communication between merchant and consumer and among consumers.
Traditional television or radio, for instance, cannot ask viewers questions or enter into
conversations with them, or request that customer information be entered into a form.
• Interactivity allows an online merchant to engage a consumer in ways similar

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to a face-to-face experience.

8. What difficulties are presented in trying to measure the

number of web pages in existence?
➢ There is no precise measurement of the number of web pages in existence, in
part because today’s search engines index only a portion of the known universe of web
pages. Google has identified over 130 trillion individual web pages, up from 30 trillion
in 2013, although many of these pages do not necessarily contain unique content
(Schwartz, 2016). In addition to this “surface” or “visible” Web, there is also the so-
called deep Web that is reportedly 500 to 1,000 times greater than the surface Web. The
deep Web contains databases and other content that is not routinely identified by search
engines such as Google. Although the total size of the Web is not known, what is
indisputable is that web content has grown exponentially since 1993.

9. Why is the mobile platform not just a hardware

phenomenon?
➢ Mobile platform provides the ability to access the Internet from a variety of
mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and other ultralightweight laptop
computers. The mobile platform is not just a hardware phenomenon. By the introduction
of more and more mobile device each year, it’s been proved that web and web browsers
aren’t the only game in town. More and more people nowaday prefer access the Internet
via a mobile app (which is a software) on their mobile device.

10. What is conversational commerce and how does it relate to

m-commerce?
Conversational commerce:
• A variation of m-commerce known as conversational commerce involves the
use of chatbots on mobile messaging apps such as facebook messenger, whats app,
snapchat, and slack as a vehicle for companies to engage with consumers.

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 How does it relate:
• While m-commerce mostly fucntion as a way to deliver your products or
services to your customers. Conversational commerce is also about connecting with
your customers, especially via media platforms.

11. Describe the three different stages in the evolution of e-

commerce.
There are 3 stages in the evolution of E-commerce:
• Invention (1995-2000):
o With the first widespread use of the Web to advertise products. In this
period, e-commerce meant selling retail goods, usually quiet simple
goods, on the internet. And the marketing was limited to unsophisticated
static display ads and not very powerful engines.
• Consolidation (2001-2006):
o During this period, ecommerce changed to include not just retail
products but also more complex services such as travel and financial
services. This period, marketing on the internet increasingly. The web
policy of most firms expanded to include a broader “web presence”,
relate to elements like e-mail, display, and search engine campaigns…
• Reinvention (2007-prensent):
o With the introduction of the IPhone, to present day. It has been
transformed by the rapid growth of Web 2.0. During this time can be seen
as both a sociological, as well as a technological and business,
phenomenon. Entertainment content has developed as a major source of
ecommerce revenues and mobile devices have become entertainment
centers, as well as on-the-go shopping devices for goods and services.
Marketing transformed by the increasing use of social network, word-of-
mouth, viral marketing, ...

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 12. Define disintermediation and explain the benefits to
Internet users of such a phenomenon. How does
disintermediation impact friction-free commerce?
• Basically, it means get rid off the intermediation (the middlemen which is
wholesaler, distributor…) and contruct a relationship between the manualfacturers (or
the producers) and the consumers.
• Disintermediation ends with the result of lowering the prices of the products
and services so low that at some point the prices would just be enough to cover the costs
for those products and services. Which means those will best benefit from this will be
the consumers (the Internet users).

• A friction-free commerce is a vision of commerce in which there will be

equal and no unfair competitions. And disintermediation will result in lower transaction
costs which would eliminate the product brands-the biggest unfair advantages and the
returns on capital.

13. What is the difference between a PWA and a regular app?

• A PWA functions like a regular app but also has the benefits of the mobile
websites. Which gives the PWA the differences and also the advantages that a regular
app doesn’t have:
o It doesn’t need to be downloaded or updated
o It doesn’t consume much memory
o The ability to load instantly

14. What is driving the growth of social e-commerce?

➢ The growth of social e-commerce is being driven by a number of factors,
including the increasing popularity of socail sign-on (signing onto websites using your
Facebook or other social network ID), network notification (the sharing of approval or
disapproval of products, services, and content), online collaborative shopping tools,

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 social searrch (recommendations from online trusted friends), and the increasing
prevalence of intergrated social commerce tools such as Buy buttons, Shopping tabs,
marketplace groups, and virtual shops on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, and
other social networks.

15. Discuss the ways in which the early years of e-commerce

can be considered both a success and a failure.
E-commerce has gone through three stages: invention, consolidation, and reinvention.
The early years (which is the invention period) of e-commerce were a technological
success, with the digital infrastructure created during the period solid enough to sustain
significant growth in e-commerce during the next decade, and a mixed business success,
with significant revenue growth and customer usage, but low profit margins.
SUCCESS:
➢ In this near-perfect information marketspace, transaction costs
would plummet because search costs—the cost of searching for prices, product
descriptions, payment settlement, and order fulfillment—would all fall drastically
(Bakos, 1997).
➢ At the same time, advertisements could be personalized to the needs
of every customer. Prices and even costs would be increasingly transparent to the
consumer, who could now know exactly and instantly the worldwide best price, quality,
and availability of most products.
FAILURE:
➢ The resulting intense competition, the decline of intermediaries, and the
lower transaction costs would eliminate product brands, and along with these, the
possibility of monopoly profits based on brands, geography, or special access to factors
of production. Prices for products and services would fall to the point where prices
covered costs of production plus a fair, “market rate” of return on capital, plus additional
small payments for entrepreneurial effort (that would not last long). Unfair competitive
advantages (which occur when one competitor has an advantage others cannot purchase)

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 would be reduced, as would extraordinary returns on invested capital. This vision was
called friction-free commerce.

16. What are five of the major differences between the early
years of e-commerce and today’s e-commerce?
Five of the major differences
Early years Today’s e-commerce
1995–2000 2001–2006 2007–PRESENT
INVENTION CONSOLIDATION REINVENTION
1 Ungoverned Stronger regulation and Extensive government
governance surveillance
2 Technology driven Business driven Mobile technology enables
social, local, and mobile e-
commerce
3 Entrepreneurial Large traditional firms Entrepreneurial social,
mobile, and local firms
4 Perfect markets Imperfect markets, brands, Continuation of online
and network effects market imperfections;
commodity competition in
select markets
5 Low-complexity High-complexity retail Retail, services, and content
retail products products and services

17. How do the Internet and the Web fit into the development
of corporate computing?
• At the core of e-commerce are the Internet and the Web. Underlying these
technologies are a host of complementary technologies: cloud computing, desktop
computers, smartphones, tablet computers, local area networks, relational and non-

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 relational databases, client/server computing, data mining, and fiber-optic switches, to
name just a few. These technologies lie at the heart of sophisticated business computing
applications such as enterprise-wide information systems, supply chain management
systems, manufacturing resource planning systems, and customer relationship
management systems. E-commerce relies on all these basic technologies—not just the
Internet.
• The Internet and Web, and the emergence of a mobile platform held together
by the Internet cloud, are the latest in a chain of evolving technologies and related
business applications, each of which builds on its predecessors.
The internet and the evolution of corporate computing
Computer Technology Business Application
Mainframe Computers (1950-1975) Transaction automation
Payroll
Accounts receivable
Minicomputers (1970-1980) Business function automation
Marketing
Human resources
Design
Personal Computers (1980-present) Desktop automation
Word processing
Spreadsheets
Databases
Local Area Networks Client/Server Workgroup automation
Computing (1980-present) Document sharing
Project management
Messaging, e-mail
Enterprise-wide Computing (1990- Enterprise-wide automation
present) Resource planning systems

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 Intergrated finance manufacturing systems
Human resource planning
Internet and Web Mobile Platform Cloud Industrial systems automation
Computing (1995-present) Supply chain management
Customer relationship management
Channel management systems
Web and cloud services

18. Why is the term “sharing economy” a misnomer?

➢ It’s important to understand that although Uber and similar firms are often
called “sharing economy” companies, this is a misnomer. Uber drivers are selling their
services as drivers and the temporary use of their car. Uber itself is not in the sharing
business either: it charges a 25% commission on every transaction on its platform. Uber
is not an example of true “peer-to-peer” e-commerce because Uber transactions involve
an online intermediary: a third party that provides a platform for, and takes a cut of, all
transactions.

19. What are those who take a technical approach to studying

e-commerce interested in?
➢ Computer scientists are interested in e-commerce as an exemplary
application of Internet technology. They are concerned with the development of
computer hardware, software, and telecommunications systems, as well as standards,
encryption, and database design and operation.
➢ Operations management scientists are primarily interested in building
mathematical models of business processes and optimizing these processes. They are
interested in e-commerce as an opportunity to study how business firms can exploit the
Internet to achieve more efficient business operations.

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 20. What have been some of the surprises that have occurred
in the evolution of e-commerce?
➢ There have been some extraordinary and unanticipated surprises in the
evolution of e-commerce. Few predicted the impact of the mobile platform. Few
anticipated the rapid growth of social networks or their growing success as advertising
platforms based on a more detailed understanding of personal behavior than even
Google has achieved. And few, if any, anticipated the emergence of on-demand e-
commerce, which enables people to use their mobile devices to order up everything from
taxis, to groceries, to laundry service.

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