A Brief History of E-commerce
In year 2012, no one is a stranger to the concept of ecommerce. It has become a part of our normal life. But it was not so mundane and ubiquitous like papers and running waters even 10-15 years ago. I just want to go through a brief history of e-commerce and its rising into the current state.
E-commerce is about using data for commercial purposes by transmitting the data electronically between computer systems in a standard format. But what are the key drivers that triggered the major growth that we saw in E-commerce systems and applications within the last two decades? Well over the past 30 years computer hardware has become cheaper by the month. Operating Systems and. particularly, the software that runs on them, have become more powerful and (arguably) more user-friendly, providing a wider range of solutions to the business market. At the same time, communication options have diversified and improved.
As a result, various industry sectors began to see the potential of linking their computer systems either directly or via communications networks. Once such links were in place, then it was a natural progression to begin exchanging information between trading partners. The requirement for some sort of structure and standardization to these exchanges of business information was recognised, hence the development of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
In year 2012, no one is a stranger to the concept of ecommerce. It has become a part of our normal life. But it was not so mundane and ubiquitous like papers and running waters even 10-15 years ago. I just want to go through a brief history of e-commerce and its rising into the current state.
E-commerce is about using data for commercial purposes by transmitting the data electronically between computer systems in a standard format. But what are the key drivers that triggered the major growth that we saw in E-commerce systems and applications within the last two decades? Well over the past 30 years computer hardware has become cheaper by the month. Operating Systems and. particularly, the software that runs on them, have become more powerful and (arguably) more user-friendly, providing a wider range of solutions to the business market. At the same time, communication options have diversified and improved.
As a result, various industry sectors began to see the potential of linking their computer systems either directly or via communications networks. Once such links were in place, then it was a natural progression to begin exchanging information between trading partners. The requirement for some sort of structure and standardization to these exchanges of business information was recognised, hence the development of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
