Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Truth About The History Of E Commerce

By David Green

Way before the first Internet connection started, ecommerce has already began. In 1960s, things began happening that brought ecommerce to its level today.

It was in the 1960s when EDI was first developed. EDI means Electronic Data Interchange. This is a set of standards for electronic transactions and exchange of business information. Despite this development, many companies were still unable to transact business electronically due to the difference in EDI formats. It was only in 1984 when ASC x12 became the standard used for large electronic transactions that made it possible for companies to transact business electronically.

Eight years later in 1992, the first point and click web browser was developed, called Mosaic. Then the first downloadable browser, Netscape, was developed based on Mosaic, and this gave people with Internet access the ability to participate in electronic commerce. This was really the first step in the history of e commerce that lead to the widespread e commerce usage we see today.

DSL or high-speed Internet let more users take advantage of e commerce with more convenience, with the holiday season of 1998 setting a record of the most e commerce sales until that point. Online sales for AOL during that 10-week Christmas season topped 1 billion.

Red Hat Linux was developed, giving computer users a choice. No longer was Windows the only option, consumers could opt for reliable and open-sourced Linux, instead. Now that there was competition, Windows began expanding its ability to handle e commerce.

In 1999, Napster was founded and though it started as a means for users to share music files for free,it became an important step in the history of ecommerce. As ecommerce become more popular, consumers were given the chance to voice out their opinions. In 2000, Time Warner and AOL merged. By then, Ebay, Amazon.com, and Yahoo became popular sites for ecommerce. Hackers found ways to attack these sites which made higher internet security a necessity. This also pushed for the lobbying of a more secured browser interfaces.

Every major retail players like Sears, Wal-Mart and Borders bookstore have online presence that allows for convenience to transact business electronically that even traditional companies started adapting to ecommerce. In 2001, business to business transactions amounted to $700B. While more people have discovered convenience of doing ecommerce in the comforts of their home, it's clear that ecommerce history is not yet a closed book as it is still continually changing and becoming more popular as online shopping. - 2364

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