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Informatics |Информатика
LESSON 6
Read the text: E-COMMERCE HAS A PROMISING FUTURE
While the Asian NIEs, NICs, and China currently lag the United States, Europe and Japan in Internet access and E-commerce, that gap is expected to narrow in coming years. The number of Internet users in the Asia Pacific region as a whole is projected to increase from 73 million in 2000 to 233 million in 2005, which will be an average penetration rate of 8 percent. China had about 17 million Internet users in 2000, compared to 15 million in Korea, and the number of users is expected to double every six months. In terms of E-commerce, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore have the greatest potential in the near term, especially for business-to-consumer (B2C) applications, due to the high cost of a personal computer, Internet access costs, and low income levels. Korea’s B2C market is expected to rise to $10 billion by 2005, compared to $0.9 billion in 2000. Overall, by 2005, the B2C market in Asia is projected to total $57 billion, a fraction of the projected business-to-business (B2B) market of $1.2 trillion. However, government actions may pose a barrier in some nations as a result of restrictive attitudes toward the Internet and E-commerce. For example, in 2000, the Chinese central government introduced regulations on foreign ownership of Internet portals, and that action could constrain that country’s Web development.
A Role for “Infomediaries”?
It is somewhat possible that Internet infomediaries could, in the future, provide a new avenue for global market research. Infomediaries are the “factories” of new digital information production. A rudimentary version of an infomediary is an online bookseller that uses the information consumers provide to make suggestions on further book purchases or priceline.com, which organizes markets for those willing to sell, say airline tickets and consumers wanting to travel. Other rudimentary examples are the Personallogic.com division of America Online and AskJeevesTM.
True infomediaries don’t exist today but might develop along the following lines. Say you’re a consumer in any country and you buy things on the Web regularly. You sign up for a membership with an infomediary. The information provides software for your computer which tracks everything you do on the Web – which sites you visit, which pages you view, what products you look at, and what you buy. The infomediary collects this information and adds it to thousands or millions of other consumer profiles. The program processes all these data in ways that are meaningful to consumer product vendors, who use it to do a better job of offering you products and services that you actually want.
This would provide a new avenue for market research and a way for firms to get their hands on data about consumers in any country. Infomediaries may work best in markets that are the most fragmented – that is, where buyers and sellers know each other the least – and a firm marketing in a foreign market party knows the other very well.
1. Match the left part with the right:
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1. Government actions may pose |
a) software for your computer which tracks everything you do on the Web. |
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2. Internet infomediaries could |
b) provide a new avenue for global market research. |
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3. Infomediaries may |
c) a barrier in some nations as a result of restrictive attitudes toward the Internet and E-commerce. |
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4. The information provides |
d) work best in markets that are the most fragmented. |
2. Complete the sentences with the suggested words: infomediary, a consumer, exist, along
True infomediaries don’t ______ today but might develop _______ the following lines. Say you’re _______ in any country and you buy things on the Web regularly. You sign up for a membership with an ________.