Articles by

For the first time, a book on e-commerce has reached the top of the business bestseller list on Amazon.com. The online giant named the book, Customers.com by Patricia Seybold and Ronni Marshak (contributor), the number one business bestseller for 1999 Business bestsellers typically cover more generic topics. Amazon's number two book, The Innovator'...

Telemundo Network Group LLC, one of the most recognized Spanish-language TV networks in the United States, has announced a multi-million dollar (US$) strategic investment in Spanish-only e-tailer Espanol.com in an effort to target Hispanic consumers in North and Latin America As part of the deal, Espanol.com will receive "substantial" advertising o...

E-commerce is set to explode in Japan from about $4 billion (US$) in 1999 to $693 billion in 2003, according to a new report from Andersen Consulting and Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) The study reports that business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce in Japan skyrocketed to $3.2 billion in 1999, a 420 percent increase from t...

Online media company CNET, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNET) has announced that it will buy privately-held online comparison shopping company mySimon, Inc. for approximately $700 million (US$) in stock The San Francisco, California-based CNET said it will issue 11.3 million of its shares to mySimon with an eye toward completing the transaction by the end of the f...

At the end of 1999, retail analyst Lehman Brothers Holdings predicted that holiday season failures would force many online merchants to fold or go up for sale at a rapid rate in 2000 Despite a well-publicized tripling of e-commerce spending last year, many online merchants have found themselves falling far short of the shopping season revenues that...

U.S. Justice Department officials reportedly called computer crime a growing menace to corporations worldwide, and admitted that law enforcement agents face major hurdles in combating it A report by Reuters today said Justice and FBI officials concede there is no such thing as a completely secure computer system. The warning was voiced Thursday at ...

Software giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) has announced plans to invest $100 million (US$) in VerticalNet, Inc., an owner and operator of 55 industry-specific Web sites that function as online business-to-business (B2B) vertical trade communities. The new partnership is intended to help small and medium-sized businesses do business online As pa...

E-commerce solutions provider INTERSHOP Communications, Inc. has announced a strategic partnership with server appliance developer Cobalt Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: COBT) to deliver a Linux-based e-commerce appliance The new Intershop RaQ will combine Intershop Merchant for Red Hat Linux with Cobalt's RaQ 3 server appliance, enabling service providers...

Consumer fears of online credit card security were reinforced this week, as hackers infiltrated the credit card database of health products supplier Global Health Trax, Inc On Monday, the company's old Web site became vulnerable to the hackers, who gained access to home phone numbers, bank account numbers, and credit card account numbers of several...

Plans call for Planet Medica.com, billed as Europe's first pan-European health portal, to debut on the Web later this year The site, which will launch simultaneously in the UK, France and Germany, will launch in April, and has attracted 12.5 million pounds ($19 million US$) in seedcorn and first round funding from several organizations.

Q What is Reel.com, and what do you sell on the site? A Reel.com is a premier online destination for film-related content and commerce. Q What is Reel.com, and what do you sell on the site? A Reel.com is a premier online destination for film-related content and commerce. Through our Web site, we provide consumers with an intuitive, entertaining en...

Internet service provider Internet Gold (Nasdaq: IGLD) has announced that it will continue to expand e-commerce in Israel by forming an online brokerage with three partners Internet Gold, which has approximately 165,000 subscribers, will take an initial 25 percent stake in the joint venture with the A.B. Watley Group (Nasdaq: ABWG), a New York-base...

A leading legal IT services firm in the UK has warned of potentially significant contractual mistakes by "bricks and mortar" companies failing to consider the legal consequences of moving their products and/or services online for sale The legal firm -- Sharespeares -- says that, while e-commerce is rapidly becoming a popular method of selling goods...

Forrester Research, Inc. has concluded that, despite recent improvements to its archaic Web site, Wal-Mart's e-commerce operation will require vast improvement if it is to mount a serious challenge to Amazon and other industry leaders any time soon This scathing review comes a few short weeks after America Online and Wal-Mart Stores announced a wid...

Oil companies have had a boom-bust relationship with high technology since the high-profit days of the 1970s, when several oil companies, most notably Exxon, pumped millions into largely unsuccessful high tech start-ups such as Zilog, Qwip and Qwix When the profits ran dry after the OPEC oil embargo ended, so did the high tech investments. Now, wit...

Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce was a paltry two percent or so of overall retail sales in 1999. Nevertheless, industry experts are telling brick-and-mortar companies in the $2.7 trillion (US$) retail industry that they must jump online quickly or risk being left behind At the National Retail Federation's (NRF) 2000 Conference in New York, con...

Business-to-business (B2B) transactions will propel the online healthcare industry to reach $370 billion (US$) by 2004, according to a recent study by Forrester Research, Inc The study predicts that business-to-consumer (B2C) retail sales will comprise only $22 billion of the total, a paltry eight percent. The remaining 92 percent will be made up o...

During a recent Republican presidential debate, Arizona Senator John McCain challenged Texas Governor George W. Bush to join him in a pledge to permanently ban Internet taxation Bush declined the offer, saying instead that a three-to-five-year extension of the current tax moratorium would be a more prudent course.

IBM, which announced a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter today, has unveiled two major e-commerce initiatives First, IBM announced that it is setting up a $500 million (US$) fund for e-commerce ventures. The fund is part of a larger $1 billion funding initiative for new ventures.

Diversinet Corp., a provider of e-commerce security applications, has unveiled a new product version that is designed to issue digital permits for both wired and wireless permissions The Digital Permit Server version 2.0 allows content providers and other organizations to create authorization parameters that allow users who work with resource-const...