Mobile Money aims for 100,000 vendors

Mobile Money, offering pay from where you are which your mobile phone, iss currently hopes to boost the number of merchant partners for its mobile payment system to 100,000 by year-end, from 7,000 currently.

The company is also targeting for its user base to reach one million by year-end too.

Shoppers visiting the vendors' outlets will, among other things, be able to pay for their purchases via mobile phone, as long as they have

1. a mobile credit card account with Hong Leong Bank or
2. a saving or current account with Bumiputra-Commerce Bank.

Why using Mobile Money?

• Secure
• Convenient
• Rewarding

You can view the benefits of the Mobile Money from its website.

This topic is related to the Electronic Payment Systems (Lecture 5)

3G Services in Malaysia = POOR

The recent survey conducted by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on the Hand Phone Users Survey 2005 resulted in the following outcomes:

There are still a lack of awareness among consumers and those that are aware of the 3G services can't find compelling reasons to migrate.

Reasons for not wanting to migrate to 3G: (multiple response question)

1. Don't need the service at the moment (54.8%)
2. The phone is too expensive (37.0%)
3. The service is too expensive (31.2%)
4. To 'wait and see' (28.9%)
5. Others (15.1%)

As at the end 0f 2005, the number of 3G subscribers in Malaysia

• Celcom - 45,000 3G subscribers
• Maxis - 30,000 3G subscribers

Are you a 3G subscriber? Share with us your personal experience on using the 3G services.

Gong Xi Fatt Chai

Dear students,

Taking this opportunity to wish all of you:

1. Able to collect lots of ang pow
2. Able to find good wealth anywhere
3. Good health all the time = will not miss classes due to being ill
   
4. Work and study harder this semester & this year
5. Hardworking = Good results (without depending on study tips)
6. Prosperity of your friendships and family
7. World peace
8. GONG HEI GONG HEI

Enjoy the holiday!

From:
UBAI3013 Teaching Team

Note: Don't forget our date on the Feb 14th.

CAN TIME BE BOUGHT?

Most of the time we always find that 24 hours in a day seems not enough for us to accomplish astonishing amount of tasks and works , be it at the workplace or being personal.

This lead to an interesting idea of

Whether time can be bought?

or

Can we buy time?

Any comment? Yours are definitely be welcomed to share with us.

New Revolution - Social Software

We are part of the revolution that will integrate technology more thoroughly into our lives and blur the boundaries between us and machines.

What?
The element that elevates the Internet from a simple tool into an interpersonal pehenomenon, connecting people in a meaningful way.

The concept:
Bring together widely-scattered groups to meet on common ground creating new communities.

Tools:
Collaborative sites such as "wikis" - a webpage open to editing by anyone - are now being applied in educational and organisational environments, providing a communal pool in which to pour knowledge for the benefits of all.

(Example: Wikipedia - I had a blog entry briefly introducing the wikipedia in my personal blog.)


Weblogs (blog), the success story of the current generation of social software, are a phenomenon of self expression which mediates the relationships between consumers of culture and those who report it - Blogosphere

Conclusion:
It is the social in the software which will bring communities together.

(Source: The Star InTech, 19 Jan 2006, pg IT17)

Some useful links

I have add for the Turban's E-Commerce Student Resources site as a link in this blog. You can find it on the left side of the page.

For those who would like to download Mozilla Firefox web browser software, you can click on the last button (get Firefox with Google toolbar) in the side bar of this page to download the software.

Suggestion are welcomed if you have any software or web sites that can be useful for our learning of e-commerce.

Are you one of these expert?

An interesting article from CNN.com - Web Sites Judged in a Blink

How fast can a person rate an web site?
Answer: A brief one-twentieth of a second (less than half the time to blink)

Effect: If the first impression is negative, the web site will drive people off.

Impact: Powerful implications for the Web site design - Web designers have to be careful not to offend web users visually.

2005 at a glance for IT in Malaysia & World

(Edited from The Star, 29 December 2005)

February

The Government says it has proposals for incentives in the ninth Malaysia plan that encourages more value added activities in ICT. This includes a renewed look at R&D and the shared services and outsourcing sector.

Kedah calls for a wider broadband infrastructure especially in rural areas to attract more investors.

The world’s first cellphone worm, Cabir, is detected in the United States. The worm spreads through Bluetooth and drains the battery on infected phones.

March

The Recycle PC campaign, a joint effort between Pikom and waste management company, Alam Flora, is launched.

Web search giant Yahoo! Inc turns 10.

April

The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs said special courts are needed for copyright infringement cases as they are always backlogged in other courts.

May

Internet worm Worms_Sober.S, hits 30 countries in half a day.

The Government conducts the first Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) recruitment fair which offered more than 2000 jobs to unemployed ICT graduates.

Celcom becomes the first local telco to launch 3G services in Malaysia.

July

Maxis launches its 3G phone service.

Amazon.com celebrates its 10th anniversary.

August

Oracle launches an RM10mil centre of excellence for e-governance in Cyberjaya, leading the way to develop e-government solutions in the region.

Google stops efforts to scan copyrighted books for Google Print for Libraries, following backlash from the US publication industry.

September

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) begins a study to implement mobile number portability in Malaysia.

The MSC is expanded to include Penang as part of its seven year, second phase of development. The state is declared a “cybercity.”

October

The Government announces a range of measures under Budget 2006 to boost the development of the MSC and the ICT industry including having the MDC work with Permodalan Nasional Bhd and Khazanah to match MSC companies with GLCs that could serve as a test-bed.

Google and Sun Microsystems team up to offer free spreadsheet and wordprocessing software to challenge Microsoft.

Yahoo! and Microsoft forge a partnership to make their instant messenger programs work with each other by June 2006.

December

Malaysia becomes the first South East Asian country to embrace the Creative Commons initiative. Creative Commons enables copyright holders to grant some of their rights to the public while retaining others through a variety of licensing and contract schemes. Its intention is to avoid the problems that current copyright laws create for the sharing of intellectual property.

Making million dolar from homepage

A new phenomena is getting popular now with the million dollar pixel advertisment, which was started by Alex Tew, a young college student from UK. Advertisment advertised will be available for a period of 5 years guaranteed.

Visit the homepage here: http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

New way of making money from the web. Do you have any new idea which can make oneself a millionaire? Share with us.


This image was taken from www.milliondollarpagehomepage.com

Yahoo doubled the earning in 2004

Some searchings on this topic showed the latest information on the Yahoo's earning in 2004.

Articles in the ITworld.com, PCWorld.com and NetworkWorld reported the Yahoo's 2004 earning rose to US$ 3.58 billion from US$ 1.6 billion in 2003, up of 120%.

However, all these articles do not disclose breakdown of the earning by marketing services, subscription and listing fees.

Yahoo earned US$ 1.6 billion in 2003

Yahoo posted US$ 1.6 billion for 2003, an increased from US$ 953.1 million in 2002. This article listed three main areas of earning namely Marketing Services, Subcription Fees and Listing.

A large proportion comes from the Marketing Services [mainly on advertisments] which generated US$ 1.2 billion, an 84% jump from the year before.

Read this article for more information. (Source: CNET News.com)

This topic is corresponding with the Revenue Model discussed in the Lecture 1.

Starting of a new semester

This picture was taken from this morning class - the 1st class of the Jan's semester. Welcome to the UBAI3013 E-Commerce.

Why the students are not being attentive? Actually they were having their short break in between the lecture.

This picture was shot using the Nokia 6610i.

Let's enjoy the learning process.


Another picture captured on the 2nd lecture day - Thursday class.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006

Dear Students,

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2006!

It's also the beginning of a new semester. Here, the teaching team members would like to welcome all of you. A total of 450 students from both BA and AC will be attending E-Commerce lectures and tutorial classes.

Let's enjoy the learning process together!