It’s all about the (digital) money! An interview with Scott Mainwaring

Be they US dollars, Euros or Yens, paper bills are becoming anachronistic, as we use more and more credit cards, smart cards or even completely virtual currencies such as Linden Dollars in Second Life. But is this increase in the type and form of payments confusing for people? How do designers should approach topics like digital payments and virtual currencies?
These and many other issues concerning digital money are being investigated by a collaboration among different researchers which include Scott Mainwaring and Wendy March (Intel Research), Bill Maurer and Yang Wang (University of California, Irvine), Hsain Ilahiane (Iowa State University).
They are presenting two papers today at CHI 2008, I’ve talked with Scott about it and you can find a lot of interesting information in the following:

Digital money, Virtual currencies, smartcard payments in the physical world, electronic payments in virtual worlds,… How many forms is money taking in the 21st century?
“One might imagine, with developments like the Euro and the growth of world-wide networks like Visa and Mastercard, that the number of different forms of many and ways of making payment will become ‘rationally’ reduced into a small set of preferred standards. And indeed there are important trends in this direction; for example, in Toyko, commuters are generally quite thankful that a single kind of transit-based money, PASSMO, is now accepted across the wide range of different subway and rail companies operating there, each of which formerly required their own form of ticket or pass.
But what’s been really striking to me in the research I’ve been doing for Intel on monetary innovation is how the same information and communication technologies (ICTs) that make standardization possible also seem to be allowing all sorts of groups and institutions to create
their own forms of moneys or quasi-moneys like loyalty points, airline miles, mobile phone airtime minutes, volunteer hours, etc. How many are there? It’s an excellent question, but I don’t think anyone really knows or is tracking these systematically. If you count non-digital
forms like those “buy 10, get one free!” paper punch-cards independent cafes and so forth give out, it must be many thousands. And I suspect it is growing every day.”

Is this confusing people? How?
“Well, it’s certainly filling up many people’s wallets with all sorts of plastic and paper payment and membership cards! I’d invite readers to look through their own wallets and count the number of different kinds of cards and credentials they’re carrying, and why. I think future ‘digital wallet’ interfaces could help people manage and access of all the different forms of money and types of payment that they currently carry in daily life, and will for the forseeable future.
And it’s certainly frustrating to feel compelled to carry multiple forms of payment technology, in order to meet the dictates of different service providers. To use Tokyo again as an example, different convenient stores currently require different, non-transferrable varieties of digital cash, which made some of the people we talked to question the usefulness of digital cash entirely.
But I also want to acknowledge that a certain level of complexity can be desirable and even delightful — efficiency isn’t necessarily the most important value underlying people’s monetary behavior and choices. People often like to have multiple bank or card accounts, for example, to assign each with a different use and meaning, and perhaps to keep some private from their spouse or significant other. And some of the people we interviewed were a bit proud to show off the schemes they had developed to link together multiple forms of payments so that they could get double or triple ‘points’ for a single purchase; learning about and dealing with the complexity of money systems can become a kind of game, or at least be a bit playful. There’s quite a bit of research in behavioral and sociological economics showing that people are quite good at designing their own ideosyncratic schemes for making sense of the multiple ‘pots’ and flows of money around them.”

You have studied forms of electronic payments in different countries. How do cultural aspects affect the perception and the success or failure of these solutions?
“Cultures certainly vary quite a bit in how money is popularly understood, and how safe people feel in taking a chance on some newfangled payment, investment, or transfer scheme. Cultural differences — across or within countries — can be rooted in all sorts of factors, from the strength of banking and consumer protection regulations, trust in public or private institutions, historical experiences with hyperinflation or other economic traumas, and even in
different word-of-mouth ‘folk theories’ about how credit cards differ from debit cards, for example.
The relation between the success or failure of any particular financial technology to the culture tries to serve is really complex, but looking at individual cases can start to uncover some important themes – themes that might be quite widely relevant, not just to the culture in which they are easiest to see. That’s the approach we took in looking at e-cash systems based on a particular technology called FeliCa in Japan. FeliCa is a system that allows you to load money onto a smart card, which you can then use instead of cash for making small purchases (typically around 10 Euros or so) in convenience stores or what have you. Loading the cash is a fairly cumbersome process, but paying is kind of cool: you touch your card to a reader, which instantly lights up and plays some sound effects, and, voila, you’re done, no fumbling for bills, no making change.
We found two aspects of Japanese culture to be particularly important for understanding FeliCa’s success. One is termed ‘meiwaku’ – the importance of not being a public nuisance. These payment cards, unlike credit cards, were seen as socially responsible, even morally good; they help speed up the lines at cash registers, easing the burdens on the sales clerk and one one’s fellow customers as well. The other cultural underpinning of FeliCa’s success we called the ‘tokushita!’ effect — that’s a Japanese exclamation of happiness meaning something like “I’ve made a profit!”. Because, behind the scenes, paying with FeliCa typically meant racking up some kind of loyalty points, like airline miles. One might be stuck in the crowded urban grind of daily life in Tokyo, but through FeliCa, be reminded periodically of your dreams of a vacation in a tropical paradise like Okinawa, dreams you’re a few miles closer to with each little transaction.
‘Meiwaku’ and ‘tokushita!’ are, I think, Japanese expressions of pretty universal human ideas: smoothly operating within one’s culture, on one hand, and finding little moments of delight in the drudgery of daily life, on the other. I think lots of technology designers could learn
from Japan in these respects.”

Do you think we will get rid of tangible coins and bills soon? What sorts of new applications do you imagine for the future of digital money and currencies?
“I don’t see them going away any time soon, but I think they are going to face increasing competition from electronic forms, and maybe disappear entirely in certain contexts. For example, I recently came across a pizza place in Nashville, Tennessee, which was no longer accepting cash payments at all, just debit cards or credit cards. In this case, it was the result of tragedy: the owner’s son and another employee had been murdered in a robbery at the restaurant months ago, and in the new policy seemed like it was a kind of a “never again” memorial to them. Cash has many other kinds of costs associated with its handling, though perhaps none so dramatic as this life-or-death example; these costs are inevitably, I think, going to little by little eat away at its everyday ubiquity.
The trick for developers of digital alternatives, I think, will be to make them as trustworthy, flexible, and understandable as cash. The field of human-computer interaction is only starting to look at the potential for entirely new ways of understanding and using money that technology is making possible. The next phase of my research will be focusing on using design and prototyping techniques to sketch out what these new possibilities might look and feel like.”
http://ecjournal.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?posted=37

15 Ways to drive targeted traffic to your website

There are various methods through which targeted website traffic can be driven to a website. Some of them are conventional while others aren’t exactly. Some are expensive while others are cheap or even free. This article will look in depth at what a business entrepreneur needs to drive highly valued traffic to his website.

1. Drive targeted Traffic by leaving comments on high traffic blogs in your niche. In this case, don’t fall into the trap many people fall into –just leaving comments like “Wonderful write-up”, “superb advice. Thank you”. The reason is people will hardly visit your website or blog if they feel you do not have much to offer. Instead, make your comments contributory. For instance, if you see a blog where the user pasted high quality information but missed some other things, you could include it in your post. Posts like “the idea of using articles to achieve high ranking is good. But can I chip something in? You could also boost your search engine ranking if you just leave your comments on about 100 high traffic blogs with PR 5+”. That will surely get people to notice what you have to say. Since you included your link either as the heading or at the end of the post, it will make it easier for people to visit your website via clicking through the link you provided.

2. Use the Yahoo! answer portal to generate traffic to your website.

This is easy in that every conceivable question you could think of has been asked somewhere and answers have been provided to it. So, go to answers.yahoo.com and look for possible questions that could be answered by you, your website or your blog. The key to this simple strategy is providing informational posts. DON’T SPAM. Don’t just post comments like “The answer to your question can be found at www.yourblogaddress.com”. This comes across as advertising. Instead offer one or two tips and then go ahead to include the link to your website at the end of the post or include in your profile. Avoid making it look like an obvious ploy to get them to visit your blog or website. Let’s assume someone asks a question on diverticulitis, you could go ahead and answer the question and leave the link at the end of your post. This will result in targeted website traffic because of the fact that you are providing specific answers to problems.

3. Submit your blog to as many high profile blog directories as possible. This may take a while so be ready to put in at least one hour a day to do this. In the short term, it might look hectic, but pays off in the long term. If your blog is highly ranked on high traffic blog directories, you’ll get traffic from the directories and an increased search engine ranking for your websites because of the high quality one-way links coming from your blogs.

4. Post your links in forums. Don’t post blatantly on the forums as in “visit www.yoursiteadd.com for more info”. Instead offer useful advice and then, leave your link in your signature. Pretty simple tactic right? And it work like magic. If you don’t have any question to answer, ask one in various categories and in various question forms. Spend about an hour doing this daily. You’ll get results. People have been known to drive about 100 visitors to their websites or blogs using this tactic alone.

5. Get insider information on deals and offer testimonials. If you visit discussion boards and forums in your niche, you will have access to products people want tested. Have you visited websites where you see people’s testimonials with their links at the bottom of their testimonials? Good. That’s the tactic you want to use here. If you’ve used a product or have been recruited to get involved in the beta testing of a particular product, use the products and write an unbiased, unpitch-like testimonial. Make your testimonials specific. Don’t use testimonials like “The product is really good. It will increase your income” Your testimonial is bound not to make it to the salespage of the website. Instead specifics such as “The interface is so user friendly, you don’t need to be a geek to use it. I mastered it in just 30 minutes –and I hate computers- and was getting orders in approximately 15 minutes after implementing your strategies”. This kind of testimonial will ultimately induce the merchant or owner of the product to include your testimonial with your website link on his sales page. Result? More clickthroughs and visitors as a result of the testimonial you gave.

6. Buy Ad credits in form of Pay Per Clicks. The best so far are just three of the major PPC search engines –Google, Yahoo, and MSN. There also smaller PPC Search engines such as enhance.com, search123.com, findwhat.com. These are the only smaller PPC search engines I can vouch for. The rest have been less than satisfactory. How do you determine if you are losing money on PPCs? If by the time you spend $50 and 100 visitors without any sales, you could say it isn’t profitable. This has always been my yardstick. It may not work for you. But I am sure that if 100 people were to visit your website, at least one should buy. If the search engine is working and producing results, then you might want to examine your keywords to see if your ads are targeted or your ad copy is simply crappy.

7. Buy ads from Craigslist.com. Craigslist alone has about 100 million visits every month. That means it is a potential gold mine. For a very small amount of money, you can post your classifieds in their listing as and voila you have targeted traffic. Post in the category in which the services and product you are offering belong not in other services because you are bound to get visitors who may not be looking for what you have to offer. So, if you are resume writer, post your ads in the writing section, or resume section.

8. Include a Tell-a-friend form on your website or blog. This will make people who find your blog interesting, pass it along or email it to their friends, or also, enter their friends’ email address. A very easy way to do this is by offering an irresistible incentive to the visitors to pass along. On the other hand, you can ask nicely that if they find your blog or website to be interesting, they could tell their friends about the website.

9. Write a report and giveaway at no cost. This works like magic. People love free high quality information. If you’ve heard anything about the Authority Black book by Jack Humphrey, you’ll find that the ebook is so loaded with information that you cannot exhaust it in 2 months of application. Results? Jack Humphrey’s authority site went from no traffic to 4000 readers in just 3 months. Extraordinary. Isn’t it? You could reproduce these same results if you just learned from him and applied it to your own marketing strategies. The keyword in this tactic being “overloaded with information”. The saying that if you want so much of something, learn how to help others get theirs and you’ll automatically get lots of anything you so desire. So in this case, if your target is generating lots of traffic to your blog or website, give out something of value that people will appreciate. This will ultimately keep them coming back for more information. Do yourself this favor. Update your blog at least once a day. This will ensure that repeat visitors will get to see new information every time they visit your website.

10. Add bookmarklets to your site. If you want more visitors, simply ask your visitors to bookmark your website. If you don’t know how to do this, visit a website and hold CTRL+D. The site becomes bookmarked. The beauty of telling people to do this is sometimes, people forget to bookmark a website even when they feel it is very relevant. So, teaching or reminding them to bookmark a website results in repeat visiting and sending to their friends.

11. Build your own list. According to Terry Dean, the sole purpose for your website is to catch your visitors email address and build a list. Building a list is as simple as setting up an autoresponder. Then, cut and paste the code for the form on your website. So, when people visit your website, the very first thing they see is the offer to get on your list. Follow me carefully here. Don’t make an offer that seems unreasonable. Offers like “Learn the secrets of grossing $1m in just 3 months”. This may be enticing to a newbie. But never to a professional.

12. Write articles and post to article directories. This is pretty simple. But the key to this tactic lies in the quantity of articles submitted. While the quality is good too, it more likely that the more articles you submit, the more traffic you get to your website. Note that crappy, non-informative articles are like waste materials and time on your part and as a result, get neglected and possibly avoided. If you do not produce articles that people will glean information from, you will end up doing the exact opposite of what you desire –driving traffic away from your website or blog instead of driving them to the website.
Using this seemingly simple technique requires three special ingredients:
* A very compelling Headline
* An interesting body
* A byline that is attractive.

If your headline is not compelling, there is 110% that people would not click through to read your article. That is why you need to pay lots of attention to your headline.

13. Create a viral report. You can easily do this by putting together some pages of articles, or your thoughts on certain things. Then, convert to PDF and include the rights for it to be given away. Be sure to make it clear that they do not have rights to editing or extracting any part of the report. If you decide to give them the rights to extraction, make sure they also include your byline. So, you’ll have exclusive rights. To secure your report, you can use the secure function available on adobe so no one can copy anything or extract anything from your report. The bottom line is your link is in the report.

14. Write a compelling Press Release and submit to PRWeb.com. Note that your press release must be very newsworthy. This is because so many press releases are submitted daily and only those who are newsworthy will scale the test. If you do not have prior experience in writing press releases, visit PRWeb.com and look at the releases you find there. Look for those which grip your attention immediately, then try to write yours to be as compelling as that. On the other hand, get materials that are focusing on how to write Press Releases, visit forums where press release tactics are discussed. Another avenue you might want to exploit is outsourcing the contract to freelance Press Release writers. These can easily be found on websites like rentacoder.com, elance.com, ifreelance.com, journalismjobs.com et.c

15. Purchase Ads in Ezines and Newsletters in your niche. There are three types: Top sponsor ads, solo ads, and classified ads. You can do this by looking for ezines in your niche and paying for ads in those ezines. Solo ads get the highest form of traffic followed by top sponsor ads, and lastly, classifieds. The key to profiting from this is writing an ad copy that will prick the readers’ curiosity enough to click through the link you provided. Usually, using the subject lines such as “Free Report Reveals How to lose 20kg and Reduce your waist line by 10cm in 4 weeks”, works like magic because anyone who is on that list is looking for ways to lose weight. As a result, they’ll click through to see what you have to offer.

That is all on generating targeted traffic. If you implement all these tactics, you’ll find that traffic to your website or blog will increase dramatically.
http://ecommerce-journal.com/articles/15_ways_to_drive_targeted_traffic_to_your_website

E-commerce held back by security concerns

A new survey conducted by TNS Sofres, the world’s largest custom market research company and the provider of online research, revealed that customers who make payments through banks and other non cash payment options fear that their passwords and other financial data might be stolen. The “Digital Trust Barometer” survey of 1,000 consumers unveiled that:

57% of Americans are afraid that their account passwords are not safe from thieves;

38% of the surveyed said they don’t trust online payments at all;

only 22% felt that the digital technology they used to make payments was safe.

A large amount of the respondents (74%) expressed their fear of ID theft; 44% were concerned about the possibility of their accounts hijacked; 21% of the surveyed were victims of bank data fraud. Out of all the respondents 40% said that they will be doing more shopping on line if the security was guaranteed.

One third of the respondents expressed their interest in personal handheld security device such as USB key to protect from online password theft. USB keys allow to securely store various passwords, contacts and other data and to automatically plug in to favorite websites with no information left behind when using public computers.
http://ecommerce-journal.com/news/e_commerce_held_back_by_security_concerns

Become a part of DreamTeamMoney

“I know what will happen to e-gold further”, “this hyip will fail this week”, “how much money do people lose on forex…such topics and even more interesting ones are discussed on www.dreamteammoney.com, where thousands of people come daily. “Sometimes I think that here people never sleep as every morning I even cannot read all the messages that have been written by the user while I was sleeping”, – says one of the forum users.

Forum www.dreamteammoney.com – is a big community that can be even called mini-state with its law, traditions and its population. It was founded in 2005 and during three years of its existence has gathered 31,000 users that have lost more than 420000 posts…

The most part of discussions concerns hyip-industry. Users share their experience, tell the latest rumors and discuss various investment strategies.

Except HYIPs they discuss on forum multi-level-marketing, affiliate programs, forex & stocks, business and finance discussions, savings, credit cards, loans, investing, retirement, donations, insurance, taxes, mortgages and many other relevant topics on the Internet.

The uniqueness of DreamTeamMoney forum is in its universality as in addition to business issues on electronic finances user have got an opportunity to discuss important questions of everyday life, as well as offline business.

Very interesting that forum admins like to arrange various contests and tournaments with prize places. All prize-winners get prize money, scores in forum internal bank and various gifts.

There is a module of “Bank” on forum using which one can get scores to spend them to enter various site divisions which are off-limits to new users or to those participants whose scores are insufficient to enter closed divisions.

Forum becomes more and more popular every day and today it’s very difficult to find any person in the Internet-financier community who has no nick on DreamTeamMoney.com.
http://ecommerce-journal.com/articles/become_a_part_of_dreamteammoney

Top 5 ways to promote and market an affiliate program

Marketing affiliate products can be challenging if you don’t know what to do and how to go about the marketing. There are various methods via which you can get an affiliate product in the face of people.

Marketing affiliate products can be challenging if you don’t know what to do and how to go about the marketing. There are various methods via which you can get an affiliate product in the face of people. But in this article, we’ll be examining the top five methods that you can use in promoting affiliate products.

1. Marketing to a list.

It is imperative that every marketer build a list. Why? Because the money is in the list. Anything short of that is less than spectacular. Marketing to an “opt-in” list built by you almost always generates lots of money on affiliate products. To do this effectively, all you need to do is create an avenue where you can consistently send your subscribers an email with offers. The list is about the best source of marketing because the subscribers trust you –if you have been offering high quality information and recommending reputable products- and know that what you offer them is of high value. Remember the “no lesson today” method we talked about in a particular edition, this is where you can utilise the method effectively. You can just decide to take one day off every week to make them these offers.

2. Use Pay per click methods.

Using PPC methods effectively entails just two things: Doing proper keyword research and bidding reasonably. PPC search engines ask you to pay a preset amount for every click you generate. The good thing about using pay per click Programs such as Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN Adcenter is you get highly targeted traffic. Only those who are searching for your products get to see them. For instance, if I am looking for Shoes of size 43 to buy and I type that keyword into the google search bar, I will get results that are tailored towards that search. So, the only listings I will see will be those related to shoes. Now, if someone –an affiliate of a shoe merchant- places an ad about the various shoes sizes, I will definitely check out his website. If I like what I see, I could decide to buy from him. Do you get the idea? To use this method well, learn how to research your keywords properly so that you won’t run at a loss.

3. Use Ezine and newsletter ads.

Most affiliate programs provide you with material that you can send as solo ad or top sponsor ads. All you need do is buy an adspace in any of the ezines that catch your fancy and have them send the offer to their subscribers. If your letter is well crafted, [people have been known to make lots of dough from this method. You could also use this method to just generate a flurry of traffic to your landing page where people will sign up for more information or an ecourse that you would have programmed your autoresponder to send out on a daily basis. In this ecourse, they’ll read the information and then go ahead to visit the recommended link (your affiliate link). That way you could also make lots of sales.

4. Distribute Viral reports.

These are reports that different people can pass on to their friends to read. All you need do is fill it with information that is extremely relevant, include your affiliate links in the reports and have give people the permission to give it away as long as the content is not tampered with. This also generates lots of results not to mention profits as it spreads like wildfire all over the internet.

5. Article Writing.

Write articles that are tailored to the products and services you intend to sell, and post on various article directories. Most article directories have categories for almost anything on the surface of the earth. From UFOs to Astrology to Wizardry to Xmas Celebrations. Write your articles; create a compelling byline with the affiliate link lading to the destination page. If you want to mask the link, you can either create a redirect or use link shrinking services such as tunyurl.com, snipurl.com, Gentleurl.com. To test how effective this method is, write just 5 articles on a topic, post in five different article directories then wait to see the results. If you are satisfied with it, then you might want to incorporate it into your overall marketing strategy.

http://ecommerce-journal.com/articles/top_5_ways_to_promote_and_market_an_affiliate_program

Australian eBay: PayPal, PayPal and only PayPal!!!

According to the reports of auctionbytes.com online auction eBay has prohibited the use of other payment systems except PayPal. eBay is requiring that users in Australia use its PayPal payment service on all transactions. Aside from transactions in which the buyer picks up items in person and cash-on-delivery, no other payment method will be permitted, and eBay is banning sellers from using their own merchant credit card accounts if they have them. eBay said it is making the changes “to make buying on eBay.com.au even safer and selling more reliable.”

According to the new policy, all items listed for sale on eBay.com.au on or after May 21, 2008, must offer PayPal as one of the payment methods. Beginning June17, all items appearing on eBay.com.au must be paid for using PayPal or pay on pick up. Visa and MasterCard are accepted only when processed through PayPal.

The only exceptions to the policy will be for listings in the categories of cars, motorcycles, aircraft, boats, caravans, trailers, trucks (commercials), services, real estate and businesses for sale.

Also beginning June 17, PayPal Buyer Protection will increase to a maximum of $20,000 (based on the full value of the purchase amount, including postage) for eligible items purchased.

eBay spokesperson Nichola Sharpe said the new policy applies only to eBay in Australia. “There are no plans to go to a PayPal-only model for eBay in the US and we haven’t announced any other markets at this time.”

Sharpe said eBay will evaluate the impact of eBay Australia’s new “Safer Payment” requirements. “If we think these changes will significantly improve the buyer experience, we may expand them to additional segments of sellers or categories.”

Australian users heard about the new policy on Wednesday in newspapers, which wrote about it before eBay posted it on the Australia Announcement Board. In addition to expressing skepticism that PayPal was actually safer than all other forms of payment processing, some sellers said on eBay discussion boards that they were concerned about a percentage of buyers who distrusted PayPal.

eBay Payment Restrictions Began in 2005
eBay became stricter with payment processing in late 2005 when it launched in the US a “Safe Payments” policy, later renamed the Accepted Payments policy, that was expanded internationally. The policy famously banned Google Checkout. (A look at the policy on eBay Australia on Wednesday showed the following methods were allowed: Allpay.net, Bidpay, Canadian Tire Money, cash2india, CertaPay, Checkfree.com, hyperwallet.com, Moneybookers.com, Nochex.com, Ozpay.biz, Paymate.com.au, Propay.com, XOOM. Some of those services are no longer active, and beginning June 17, all will be banned.)

In 2007, eBay limited buyer protection to PayPal-funded transactions only.

Last month, additional payment rules went into effect including an extremely controversial policy that lets PayPal hold funds in certain cases for up to 21 days. According to the policy, “In a small percentage of cases where it has been determined the risk of dissatisfied buyers is higher, PayPal may delay release of the payment funds to the seller until the buyer has left a positive feedback or 21 days have passed without a dispute, claim, chargeback or reversal filed on that transaction”.
http://ecommerce-journal.com/articles/australian_ebay_paypal_paypal_and_only_paypal

Taobao: “$13.3 billion? With easiness!”

According to recent reports of Taobao, Alibaba’s online consumer auction firm and the largest online retailer in Asia they expect this year a growth. So, they expect that this year volume of their transactions will surpass 100 billion yuan that is approximately $13.3 billion.

Taobao has good reason to think so as during these three months from the beginning of this year the volume of their transactions on the auction site hit 18.8 billion yuan that is 170% more than in was last year.

Such success can be explained by the RMB appreciation and a great number of enterprises that decided to develop their business on the Internet. So, about 10,000 brand-named enterprises have opened online outlets at Taobao including P&G, Motorola, and the Lenovo.

As for Alibaba, it also saw a progress that has resulted in share rise 122% on its trading debut in Hong Kong last November.

http://ecommerce-journal.com/news/taobao_13_3_billion_with_easiness

Philippines unites its forces for common e-commerce infrastructure

It is known long ago that in unity there is strength. It seems that authorities of Philippines also decided to make this reality. According to the head of a data center operator companies that run their own online payment methods may soon integrate efforts to enhance the country’s e-commerce infrastructure.

In a GMANews.TV interview, Dr. William T. Torres, president of Mosaic Communications (Mozcom), said that since there is now a critical number of companies with their own online payment methods, “there’s reason to say let’s do this thing together so that we can complement each other.”

“We need to find out who is doing what and integrate our efforts to lower the cost and speed up the process,” Torres said during a break at the one-day Philippine E-Commerce Forum held on Thursday in Makati.

Besides emphasizing that establishing an e-commerce system is a very costly undertaking, Torres said at least six online payment methods are currently being used by Philippine companies that sell their goods and/or services through the Internet.

Auction.PH, which allows users to buy and/or sell goods through auctions or outright purchases, offers Escrow. The arrangement temporary holds payment to a seller until the buyer receives the item he or she purchased through the site.

For its part, the Philippine Cut Flower Corporation offers a separate facility for US dollar and Philippine peso transactions from users who order flowers and similar items from its website, according to a company official who spoke during the same forum.

Although other payment systems permit transactions to be undertaken through credit and debit cards, other methods also allow settlements through the short message service of mobile phones.

Torres said five years ago the primary concern of local companies selling their goods through the Internet was where to host their e-commerce systems, which require proprietary software applications.

Now, not only are there a number of data centers in the Philippines, companies even share facilities, which help process electronic transactions.

He said there is a tendency among Philippine businesses on the Internet to build information infrastructure solely for e-commerce, a notion industry players should disabuse themselves of.

“When you speak of infrastructure, you don’t create infrastructure industry by industry. You create infrastructure to be used by all of them,” he said.

He compared the telecommunications infrastructure to a transportation system. “We don’t create a transportation system to only convey people, but to transport cargo as well,” he said.
http://ecommerce-journal.com/news/philippines_unites_its_forces_for_common_e_commerce_infrastructure

Mobile banking from Arvest bank

The usage of mobile phones has grown 60% over the past 6 years. Today mobile phones are not luxury but item of everyday life used by everyone. Popularity of mobile phones makes all more or less conscious businessmen to implement mobile technologies into their business. So did Arvest Bank, which has recently announced the launch of its mobile banking service. According to their release those customerAs who subscribe to AT&T of Verizon wireless service can download the application to their cellular device and have round-the-clock access to their Arvest account information. The application is available on www.arvestmobile.com for free.

By means of Arvest’s application bank customers can view and pay bills, check balances, transfer funds between accounts and review account history.

New application is safe and secure as it is equipped with a secure personal identification number login and 128-bit encryption system. This application is provided by Firethorn Holdings, a mobile banking and payments provider, and CheckFree Corp., a provider of financial e-commerce services.
http://ecommerce-journal.com/news/mobile_banking_from_arvest_bank

How Economic Impact from Internet ‘Doomsday’ Scenario?

Economists worldwide say that a one day “blackout” of the Internet would have a major impact on the global economy, according to a survey conducted by ICC and the Ifo Institute for Economic Research and released today.

The survey asked economists to predict the impact on their country’s economy if the Internet completely shut down for a day worldwide. A total of 1,004 responses from economists in 90 countries were received.

In almost all regions of the world the economists polled said businesses would suffer major losses and costly damage which would have huge and lasting effects.

Concerns were especially pronounced in places where Internet penetration is highest, including the US and Western Europe, particularly in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, and in several Asian countries, including Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, India and Pakistan. In contrast, in the CIS countries covered by the survey – Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan – the majority of polled economists stated that a day-long shut down of the Internet would lead to short-term delays but that the economy would not be considerably damaged.

“Business, governments and people depend on the Internet for such a large number of their activities today. We must prioritize the secure and stable functioning of the Internet. Ensuring there are appropriate policy, legal and regulatory frameworks is essential to preventing economic loss, and disruption of peoples” lives while still maximizing the opportunities the Internet represents,” said Herbert Heitmann, Chair of the ICC’s Commission on Electronic Business, IT and Telecoms (EBITT). Mr Heitmann is also Chief Communications Officer for business software maker SAP AG.

Four undersea communication cables were cut during a one week period at the end of January, providing real-life examples of the massive losses which can occur when Internet service is interrupted. The cuts caused a dramatic breakdown in Internet access in much of the Middle East, with India, the US and Europe also experiencing slowdowns. The cuts wreaked major damage to the Internet backbone despite back-up routers and raised questions about the safety of the oceanic network that handles most of the world’s Internet and telephone traffic.

More than 80% of economists who participated in the ICC/Ifo survey also agreed that Internet related policies should be crafted with the input of all concerned stakeholders – business, government, civil society and technical experts.

“It takes adherence to good practices. It takes the experience of all stakeholders to develop and implement policies and frameworks that are put in place nationally. It must be a collaborative effort on policy and in practice,” Mr Heitmann said.

The EBITT Commission is made up of business leaders and experts from many sectors and geographies. The Commission develops policy positions and practical tools on e-business and information and communications technologies that provide valuable guidance for governments and businesses to use when formulating policies and regulations.
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