The History and Evolution of E-commerce

What is e-commerce? E-commerce (Electronic Commerce) can be defined as buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The meaning of e-commerce has changed over the last 30 years. In the late 1970s, e-commerce facilitated commercial transactions by using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), to allow businesses to send commercial documents electronically (eg: purchase orders, invoices).

In the 1980s, the growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines and telephone banking were also forms of e-commerce. Since 1990, e-commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing. In year 1992, CompuServe offers online retail products to its customers. This gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer. In year 1994, Netscape arrived and released the Navigator browser under the code name Mozilla. Netscape providing users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Since Netscape released, the first online bank opened, Pizza Hut offered pizza ordering on its Webpage and it attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online.

In year 1995, two of the biggest names in e-commerce are launched. They are Amazon.com by Jeff Bezos and eBay by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb. Besides that, the first commercial-free 24 hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio started broadcasting. Dell and Cisco began to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions. From year 1998 onwards, electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web. According to Business.com, in year 1999, retail spending over the Internet reaches $20 billion. In addition, the peer-to-peer file-sharing software Napster was launched too. Furthermore, the dot-com bust in year 2000. Meanwhile, the U.S. government extended the moratorium on Internet taxes until at least 2005. In year 2003, Amazon.com had its first year with a full year of profit.