The State of Web Commerce
If you see Electronic Commerce in your future business plans, then a research report just released by O'Reilly and Associates is an item essential to your Web planning. O'Reilly may sound familiar to you because in September of 1995 (95:09:02, "Net Demographics") we announced their profile of the Internet. Now we are pleased to report we were fortunate enough to receive a copy of their newest study, The State of Web Commerce and the accompanying CD loaded with a complete list of Uniform Resource Locations (URLs) for all 3,229 sites that are fully enabled for electronic commerce, and much, much more. In their study, O'Reilly & Associates queried all the publicly visible servers, a total of 648,613 Web sites. In addition, the report details all the information you need to know about Web commerce, including security and separating the hype from reality.
If you are planning to offer bankcard services to "virtual stores," then you are probably reasoning that there are a number of ways for your customers to handle transactions and that security is not really an issue. If you are thinking this, then you may be surprised to learn that less than half of one percent of all Web sites are secure, and only half of those sites have strong encryption, with 94% being located in North America. This means that security is not only an issue, but an opportunity for you as a Web-based Financial Service/Internet Service Provider.
You may
have heard about the computer hacker recently charged by the FBI with
the theft of more than 100,000 charge card numbers. How did he get so
many numbers? Well as the story goes, the thief used a computer
program to gather credit information from companies selling products
over the Internet.
How can this happen with a "secure" environment, you ask? You may be surprised to know that many, in fact almost all the secure Internet environments are not secure at all. To make matters worse, these supposedly secure sites are beacons for theft. Once any sort of encryption or security is attempted, a potential thief is alerted that the information contained is valuable, why else would someone attempt to secure it? If the site is really not secure (as most are not), it can be real trouble.
We've all had the experience of finding something on the Web that we would like to purchase but, when it come to sending our credit card or checking account number over the Internet, we hesitate. Who is seeing this? How long will it be there? What recourse do I have if something happens?
This report will help you with the answers to these and many other Web questions that your organization just can't be without if you are going to be a Web player.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Do I believe that the information superhighway is going to be more than an electronic commerce dirt road?
2. What can I do with my site?
3. What can I do to help my customers?
4. If I was more Web savvy, would I know of opportunities for my Financial Services business on the Web that I am now overlooking?
The State of Web Commerce establishes the degree to which the Internet is ready for Electronic Commerce, and is written for readers at all levels of technical and Web knowledge.The State of Web Commerce is available from O'Reilly & Associates for $925 and comes with a CD ROM loaded with more information than you may know what to do with. As a special for Green Sheet readers, O'Reilly & Associates is offering the study for $495. For more information or to place an order, call 800-998-9938, or fax 800-829-0104.
