Business

If the Yahoo!/HotJobs merger is done right, Yahoo! can become a force in the online job listings market. Yahoo! has been making an all-out effort to become a Web solutions provider for corporations, and job listings are just one more tentacle of that octopus. In its online job listing battle with...

Analysts agree that if EBay were to disappear tomorrow, there would be plenty of competitors to grab up the online auction giant's customers. "EBay has become the model for all kinds of online commerce," Giga Information Group's Steve Telleen told the E-Commerce Times. Although no company has bee...

Online retailers, especially pure-play e-tailers, did a poor job of responding quickly to customer service requests during the holiday season, according to a report released by Jupiter Media Metrix. Jupiter said that its survey found that only 30 percent of Web retailers answered basic customer s...

Homestore.com, the dominant online real estate company, overstated revenue for the first three quarters of last year, possibly by as much as US$95 million, according to preliminary results of an internal audit of company accounting practices. Homestore said that accounting errors involving online ...

For the first time, the number of women who used the Internet for holiday shopping outpaced the number of men who did so, according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Of the 29 million online users who made purchases online during the holiday season, approximately 58 perc...

The number of layoffs announced by Internet companies fell to a 17-month low in December, raising hopes for a more upbeat 2002, according to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Still, despite the recent trend toward fewer layoffs, 2001 went into the record books as b...

The hype swirling around Web services these days has many companies perplexed. Is this another hollow promise of riches for all? Is it deserving of our attention and our IT budgets? Companies such as Boeing and British Telecom are placing big bets on Web services. With bruises still smarting from...

Not even the most optimistic observer is ready to declare that the dot-com shakeout ended in 2001. But it did slow down and start to take on a different look, as mergers, acquisitions and partnerships made headlines as often as high-profile failures. "One of the key highlights of e-commerce in 20...

EBay has stopped taking listings for its Auction for America, an ambitious plan to raise US$100 million to aid victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and is likely to fall well short of its goal. EBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove told the E-Commerce Times that as of Thursday, approximately...

Telecommunications provider SBC Communications will acquire a 3 percent stake in Yahoo! by purchasing shares from Japanese investor Softbank, the companies said. Softbank will continue to own more than 16 percent of Yahoo!, and will remain the Internet company's largest shareholder. In a previous...

By the time the dust settles from New Year's Day, it may well be gut-check time for the e-commerce industry. Regardless of the results of 2001, e-commerce, just like all of us, can turn over a new leaf by making a few simple resolutions for 2002. These can be made to help ensure that consumers wi...

Consumer confidence in the Internet continued to climb in the fourth quarter as Web users become more comfortable with online shopping, according to the Internet Confidence Index released by Yahoo! and ACNielsen. During the fourth quarter, the average shopper spent US$226 online, up slightly from...

Before the first month of the year was over, it was clear that 2001 was going to be different than other years in the short history of e-commerce. Amazon.com made a pledge to turn in pro forma operating profits by the end of the year. As often happens when bellwether companies speak, others soon ...

Though the heaviest casualties of the dot-com shakeout are in the past, experts say 2002 will be another year of consolidation for the e-commerce industry. A faster economic recovery may mean a higher number of e-commerce survivors left standing at year's end. At the same time, a prolonged recess...

Internet drugstores have had a tough time finding a cure for sluggish sales and weak consumer adoption rates in their sector. "Retailers like Rx.com and PlanetRx.com thought they could steal away some of the mail-order prescription business and be viewed from an insurance perspective as a mail-or...