Introduction
Taiwan's international competitiveness in the network infrastructure 2011 and 2012
In World Competitiveness Yearbook 2012, the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) assessed the global competitiveness of 59 economies worldwide. Taiwan ranked 7th. In Asia, Taiwan falls behind Hong Kong and Singapore, but far ahead of South Korea (22nd), the People’s Republic of China (23rd) and Japan (27th). On the other hand, because of improved effectiveness in deregulation, control of financial charges, and software construction, Taiwan’s "government effectiveness" and "environmental infrastructure" ranked 5th and 12th. This is the best performance over the years. However, Taiwan’s economic performance was limited by the international recession so that the nation’s ranking drops to 13th.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) evaluated the global competitiveness of 138 economies in 2011-2012. Most of the major leading countries are in European. Taiwan ranked 13th. In Asia, Taiwan ranked 4th, and falls behind Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong.
In the global competitiveness of the world's top 20, with respect to the ranking to "innovation"; "higher education and training”; “goods market efficiency”; and “health and primary education”, Taiwan shows the best performance in the competition. However, in the statistics to "labor market efficiency", "systemic "financial market maturity" and "technical preparedness", Taiwan’s ranking significantly falls behind the No.20. Such huge disparity with leading countries is worth for our government, relevant departments and Enterprises to pay attention of it.
In the readiness rating of the WEF network, subject to the appraisal of 142 countries (the total output of these countries exceeds 98% of global GDP output), Taiwan ranked 11th that is ahead of South Korea (12th) and Hong Kong (13th) but falls behind Singapore(2nd ). Additionally, the global ranking shows that, in addition to Singapore, the United States and Canada, the majority of the leading countries are Nordic countries, and they have leading positions in the development and application of ICT.
The status of Taiwan's E-commerce development
B2B E-Commerce Market
Over the past decade, enterprises have imported electronic supply chain and employed the Global Logistics Electronic Program to strengthen e-commerce transaction collaboration among enterprises and to achieve the goal of reducing the operating costs. Additionally, the mode of e-commerce transactions among enterprises has toward to the combined multi-application mode of mobile commerce, cloud computing, and information and communication science and technology. It includes enhanced network services; 3G mobile communications; RFID intelligent applications; service-oriented architecture; IFRS (International Financial reporting system); electronic invoices; and various types of new applications to enhance the IT application level by the value chain downstream system vendors and the flexibility and speed of the entire supply chain.
SMEs in Taiwan, with competitiveness, provide products and services, including sightseeing, culture appreciation, cuisine, local specialties and commodities as well as a wide range of MIT industrial and 3C semi-finished products…etc. However, due to SMEs’ small operation scale, SMEs often lacks sufficient marketing ability. Moreover, due to Taiwan's limited domestic market, SMEs need more Information and Communication Technology innovation and value-added generated by the mode of operation. SMEs can thereby apply network marketing to expand export markets and strengthen the value chain link. Such application contributes to the cross-industry strategic alliance in assisting manufacturers to establish an electronic supply chain platform for counseling information. And, by transforming the traditional mode of operation to cloud computing etc, the majority of SMEs can have effective pioneering e-business opportunities.
According to the investigation by The New Internet Era of E-commerce Development Project, Taiwan's B2C online shopping market reached to NT $ 3.226 billion in 2011, and is forecasted to reach NT $ 4.781 billion in 2013. In 2009, with the global financial turmoil, the domestic economy declined significantly and the overall retail market in 2010 has declined significantly. In addition, many traditional retailers reduced costs for the sake of expansion path. And, their brand management has embraced Internet shops. Such efforts will drive a continued growth in the B2C online shopping market in 2011. It is estimated as a scale of NT $ 3.956 billion in 2012.
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| Figure 1: Taiwan’s B2C Market Size 2008-2013
Data source: Department of Commerce, Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C
The New Internet Era of E-commerce Development Project, October, 2011
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According to 2012 investigations, the main business type of the Taiwan online store is still the shop-running platform. The main business of the store is up to 89.5%. The auction platform for business sellers is accounted for approximately 35.2% . It is less than the 43.2% in 2011. Many businesses converts their sales into the shop-running platform.
Most of online stores use a single platform type in operating business.48.5% of online stores select the abovementioned mode. 32.3% use two platforms;14.5% use three platforms; and only 2.2% own website by hosting to operate stores. In operating e-commerce stores, a multi-platform mode of operation is used to expand business. In order to speed up the selling process, online Stores use a multi-platform to expand the business path to improve turnover.
Comparing profitability of Taiwan online stores in 2012 with that of 2011, because of the number of new stores greatly increases, the stores that have average profit becomes less, which is only 30.7% of the yearly total profit. For stores branching out as Internet business entities operating profit was better;
for stores only operating on Internet, the total profit are less than the stores expanding business from offline to online. Because stores on all kind of platforms compete so hard, the rate of e-commerce lossmakers are also high.
C2C online shopping market
MIC (Institute for Information Industry) online shopping survey shows that users most often go to C2C shopping sites to buy second-hand books and magazines. The C2C involves the purchase of merchandise among users. Second-hand items are the commonly traded commodity in online auctions. Only 50% of users purchased second-hand goods provided by other users. Books and magazines do not easily depreciate, and are the second-hand goods most commonly purchased. The second-hand goods of Apparel and accessories are the second most purchased. Generally, users do not care the depreciation of a single product.
Auction sites are with more shops engaged in shopping auction trading. More and more businesses use the auction as a platform to develop e-commerce. Especially, clothing, accessories, shoes, bags and other boutiques is easier to start e-business. And, the merchandise gross profit also becomes higher. Thus, many e-commerce operators will enter the industry to take advantage of the convenience in auction platform or diversified business auction sites.
In addition, the most commonly used overseas C2C shopping site in the People’s Republic of China is Taobao. 50% of overseas shoppers have used the Taobao site. And, U.S. Amazon site is the second most commonly used, which is accounting for 28.4%. The frequency of using other sites is lower than 20%. When users select a website for overseas shopping, the commodity price is the primary factor to consider. And, 70% of the users said that the types of Taobao commodity in the Asia network are quite cheap, and it becomes the first choice of oversea shopping website Taiwanese used.
G2B/2C online shopping market
After the three development stages of Taiwan E-Government, Taiwan has achieved a great development in terms of service innovation, management, performance and digital opportunities. Public enterprises using e-government services are increasingly effective in international competitions. Based on these efforts, Taiwan ranked 3th in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Information Technology Report 2011-2012. Japan’s Waseda University survey report also shows that Taiwan ranked 10th for the development of e-government.
The development of Taiwan’s E-Government continues, and the creative services becomes more important now. The fourth-phase of the e-government program 2012-2016, includes “government cloud application services”, "basis database amplification", "active six flagship service,” “full service, mobile e-government”, “service combined with social network," and "e service delivery home service”. The ultimate goal is to achieve "service without boundaries and to provide a better life to all citizens.” The goal can be divided into 3 aspects: “provide cross-domain quality service”, “construct green shared environment”, and “promote fair opportunities to participate”. In achieving the goal above, Taiwan will promote more services to fit the needs of the people, to improve public recognition and participation as well as to improve the satisfaction with e-government services.
Policy Section
Due to the merging and development of technologies, the IT industry’s advantage has shifted from production to the development of soft power services and applications and reorganization of resources by cloud computing. The government has since been promoting the Digital Convergence Policy Initiative, the Service Industry Development Plan and Cloud Computing Applications and Industry Development Program. And through the installments of the EC Legislation & Infrastructure Building-up Project and Chinese E-commerce Market and Transaction Security Promotion Project, the government hopes to strengthen the Taiwanese electronic commerce power and further develop into the international market, and ultimately to develop our country’s electronic commerce.
The Digital Convergence Policy Initiative is achieved by the following seven guidelines and twenty some policies, including: providing high speed broadband Internet, promoting telecommunication convergence services, increasing the development of digital television, establishing new video services, encouraging the upgrade of broadcasting industry, and coordinating all related laws. In the end, the government hopes to accomplish the goal of creating a high-quality digital convergence life, creating a digital convergence industry, and enhancing the competitiveness of Taiwan’s next generation.
Several important indicators of the Digital Convergence Policy Initiative have been achieved in the first quarter of 2012. For instance, households that can connect to 100Mbps broadband have reached 26.65% of total households; FTTH (Fiber To The Home) users have reached 3.63 million households; wireless broadband accounts have reached 7.83 million households (according to 2011 year end data); the penetration rate of digital television has reached 12.87%; and the penetration rate of newly joined video users has reached 14.97%.
The Executive Yuan of Taiwan has passed the Service Industries Development Plan, and have given direction to the mid to long term development of the service industry. The goal in 2012 includes, the GDP of the service industry to reach NT$ 11 trillion; service industry to create 120,000 job opportunities on average per year; and service export to reach 1.2% compared to the global service market. All these goals are created in hope that the service industry can become the engine that will increase Taiwan’s added value, create employment, increase life quality and finally increase economic growth.
There are six strategies to promote the Service Industries Development Plan, and they are: Enhancing the international competitiveness of Taiwan’s service industries; Bolstering R&D and innovation, Creating differentiated services; Strengthening talent cultivation and recruitment from abroad; Improving service industry statistics; and develop new service opportunities.These strategies are implemented so Taiwanese business owners can upgrade the service industry and enhance the country’s advantage in service export through an easily reproduced management model, strength international promotion, establish flexible law mechanisms, cooperation between different industries, increase services in manufacturing industry, increase technologies in service industry, and attract and cultivate talented service employees.
The development of the Cloud Computing Applications and Industry Development Program will not only increase the value and transformation of ICT hardware industry and bring about the innovative development of the software service industry, but will also greatly shape the energy conservation and carbon reduction environment both nationally and internationally.
Cloud Computing Applications and Industry Development Program is focused on the application value and industry economic output. The goal of this proposal is to showcase the value of cloud computing to the general public, and its output to industries and economics. And based on the three levels defined by cloud computing, which are level of general facilities, level of intermediate platform, and level of application, this program can further promote five strategies, which includes: general public perceivable application, develop new energy that have innovative application, establish the foundation of software system, implement general facilities of cloud computing, and increase the efficiency of the eco conservation. The goal is to upgrade the Taiwanese industries and help the industries through the industry transition process, and achieve better energy conservation and carbon reduction.
Security, foresight, and diverse e-business models, creating e-commerce energy and international competitiveness of Taiwan is the motto of EC Legislation & Infrastructure Building-up Project. The ultimate goal is to promote a safer and more diverse development of the electronic commerce with cutting-edge ideas, and increase the competitiveness of our companies in the global market.
The current result of EC Legislation & Infrastructure Building-up Project includes several key points. In building basic e-commerce environment and establishing related laws, the government has promoted and helped companies follow the law by interviewing the retail industries regarding what kind of information can and cannot be recorded when writing online transaction agreements. Two major consumer protection topics have been discussed: the seven days reconsideration period in Consumer Protection Law and using real names in internet auctions, in order to analyze the difficulties we are facing in online transaction laws. MOEA also held conferences regarding how e-commerce can contribute to the People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act, and discuss with industries how to protect the minorities and maintain balance in the industries. Lastly, information and product handling process for group buying conflicts have also been discussed, and in the same time, discussed if group buying needs to set boundaries regarding what information needs to be recorded and what does not.
Furthermore, we also organized the Mid-high level officer Management Law and Managing Conference Focusing on e-Commerce Client Information Application and Relationship Management, and invited cross-industries experts to share their experiences and stories. In addition, we co-hosted a series of “All-dimension Online Store running, Opportunities with no boundaries” lectures with the Department of Commerce MOEA, and more than 1,000 people have participated in these forums.
In business innovative operation model, MOEA supported 46 traditional businesses to adopt new business models and new marketing contents in order to improve their businesses and develop new marketing strategies through the industry-and-academic collaboration project and its e-commerce competition. In addition, MOEA also supported 4 companies working on innovative e-commerce application and expanding to the international markets, and they were expected to strengthen their supply chains, which contained more than 300 suppliers, and the output would increase more than NT$ 10 million in 1 year.
In international operation, we started analyzing the e-commerce markets in South East Asian countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, and MOEA also helped companies cooperate with the “easyshop” online store in Malaysia, and MOEA continued to help companies cooperate with local platforms. In addition, MOEA supported companies to expand business to Japan via the Navi Mall platform, and helped them to use e-commerce marketing to introduce their products to Japan and Southeast Asia, creating opportunities overseas.
The main goal of the Chinese E-Commerce Market and Transaction Security Promotion Project is to promote Taiwan to become a secure, exquisite and popular Chinese e-commerce headquarter in the global market, and help Taiwan to become a role model for its security in e-commerce trading. The two main guidelines are “expanding Chinese e-commerce” and “strengthening the overall e-commerce transaction security”, and with other supporting policies to build a secure environment for e-commerce.
Since the implementation of the Chinese E-commerce and Transaction Security Promotion Project, MOEA has achieved the following few results: established oversea marketing support service centers; established standard operating procedures; selected and promoted consultant groups for e-commerce; counseled 260 companies to enter China’s e-commerce market; help organize 3 websites to promote Taiwan products, which are “Taiwan Products website”, “Taobao Taiwan” website, and “Asia Pacific business platforms”; cooperated with the Fujian Provincial Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation via the Taiwan Strait West Coast Economic Zone Project and established a one-stop service for Taiwanese companies; helped companies to apply the 3 major company certifications and the commodity inspection certification; strengthened e-commerce security through a more strict identity confirmation process; and in the same time established the system for personal information management.
Environment Section
E-commerce infrastructure environment
In the 21st century, almost every country is committed to the development of digital communication, and they have introduced high-speed Internet services and related projects. Besides digital broadband network, our country has initiated various projects to develop necessary infrastructure for supporting the e-commerce, such as web-link status, wireless communication development, information security and trusted enviroment, talent training, etc.
Our country has made rapid progress in the development of broadband network. For telecommunication network, the coverage of broadband converged network in our country has reached 92.6%. The number of xDSL subscribers has reached 4,449,300 at the end of May 2012, including both wired and wireless broadband Internet users. If 3G users are also included, the number of Internet users has reached 23,870,800. For the television and broadcast network, the number of subscribers of cable TV with digital set-top box has reached 644,097 at the end of March 2012, having a growth rate of 50% or more compared with the same period last year. Taiwan's cable TV digitization is estimated to reach 25% nationwide by the end of 2012. For applications to set up IPv6 websites, until the end of December 2011, the number of users with IPv6 website in our country is ranked No. 10 in the world and No. 5 in the Asia-Pacific region (following Japan, China, South Korea, and Australia). For IPv6 product certification, our country has given guidance and assistance to domestic IPv6 equipment manufacturers encouraging them to go through the official testing and application procedures to obtain the international IPv6 Ready Logo Phase I and Phase II certification. Since 2005, the number of manufacturers filing applications for IPv6 Ready Logo Phase I and Phase II certification has accumulated to 75 and 126 respectively, both ranking No. 3 in the world.
According to the NCC statistics, the north-south backbone network bandwidth of Taiwan has reached 3402 Gbps in the first quarter of 2012, and the outbound international backbone broadband bandwidth has reached 5074 Gbps. The domestic backbone network bandwidth has grown by 390 Gbps, an increase of 12.9% compared to the same period of the previous year, and the outbound backbone broadband bandwidth has grown substantially by 1674 Gbps with a growth rate of 49.2%, indicating that the demand for outbound broadband network continues to increase.
For the number of Internet users, as of June 2011, our country's regular Internet population has shown slight growth, reaching 10,880,000, and the Internet access rate is 47%. However, the penetration of Internet has gradually slowed down. From the number changes, it shows that the growth of Internet population in our country has dropped to single-digit since 2007, meaning that the Internet has entered a matured stage in our country.
In the future, our promotion goals for building a high-speed broadband network include creation of the next generation network, acceleration of the construction of fiber-optic and wireless broadband network in our country, effective use of bandwidth resources, development and integration of heterogeneous networks, and fee rate rationalization. It is hoped that the 30Mbps broadband coverage in our country will be raised to 80% by 2012, and then, by the year 2015, 80% of households in our country will be able to access 100Mbps cable broadband network. The digital convergence development program is hoped to integrate the high-speed broadband network, accelerate the cable TV digitization, and reconcile the digital regulatory environment to realize a cross-media platform. Our country has a target to increase the number of optic fiber and wireless broadband users to 6,000,000, and 2,000,000 respectively by the year 2015.
E-commerce Legal Environment
In the aspect of e-commerce legal environment, existing relevant e-commerce laws in our country can be roughly divided into six categories: information and communication technology law, internet content law, network financial law, network intellectual property law, personal information protection law, and consumer protection law.
(1) Information and Communication Technology Law
The major developments of this year on the Information and Communication Law are listed hereafter. The Draft Amendment of the Telecommunications Act was completed and submitted to the Executive Yuan for deliberation on July 30, 2012, hoping to promote cross-media integrated services to solve the convergence problem in the legal aspect and cross-industry barriers. But considering about the influence on the internet industry, the Executive Yuan send back the draft amendmet to NCC for reevaluating the articles. The Draft Amendment of the Fundamental Communications Act was submitted to the Executive Yuan on July 31, 2012, in which the division of responsibilities in development of the broadcasting and communication industry, counseling, incentives, and other matters were modified to be in line with these amendment. The Draft Amendment of the Radio and Television Act was completed and submitted to the Legislative Yuan on March 23, 2012, which has been referred to the Transportation Committee for examination. The Draft Amendments to the Satellite Broadcasting Act and the Cable Radio and Television Act were completed and submitted to the Legislative Yuan on June 12, 2012, which is currently being reviewed by the Legislative Yuan, hoping to promote consumer benefits and industry profit. The amendment on partial articales of the “Regulations for Set-up TV Boosters, Frequency Converter and Community Antenna Television Equipment”, and the “Rules for Engineering Technology of Cable Radio and Television System” were announced by the Executive Yuan at mid-year, hoping to strengthen the wired and wireless TV digitization. The amendment on partial articales of the “Regulations Governing Network Interconnection among Telecommunications Enterprises” was approved by the Executive Yuan on September 5, 2012, hoping to promote the interconnection functions on the Internet.
(2) Internet Content Law
The major developments in this year for the Internet content law are listed hereafter. The Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act was promulgated by President on November 30,2011, and take effect at this year. The main impacts of this act on E-commerce are "the modification of media rating sustem" and “establish content protection mechanisms and self-disciplinary regulations to, and prevent children and youth from seeing ," which are designed to protect the online safety for children and youth, and prevent them from seeing improper internet contents. The Ministry of Economic Affairs modified the "Regulations on Computer Software Rating System" at the third time, and renamed the Regulations as "Regulations for Management of Game Software Rating". MOEA officially announced the modified rules on May 9, 2012, hoping to prevent children and youth from being exposed to harmful information through Internet access that may damage their physical and mental development. Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act was approved by the Legislative Yuan in September 2011, and officially implemented on January 1, 2012, hoping to strengthen the protection of sexual assault victims. The Amendment to the Child and Youth Sexual Transaction Prevention Act was completed this year in order to protect the identity of children and teenager and to safeguard their rights. The Draft of Abusing Commercial Electronic Mail Management Act was submitted to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation. This Act is set to stop the interference of unsolicited commercial e-mails and enhance the safety and efficiency of the networking environment.
(3) Network Financial Law
The major development in this year for the network financial law was the revision of "Operation Directions for Electronic Invoice Pilot in Physical Channels". After the effective of "Operation Directions on Electronic Invoice", The Ministry of Finance amended four times on this directions to expand the e-invoice system and solve problems arising from actual operations. Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance promulgated the "Operation Directions for Electronic Invoice Pilot in Physical Channels" on November 18, 2010. Since the Operation Directions take into force, some problems were still unsolved. Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance revised the "Operation Directions for Electronic Invoice Pilot in Physical Channels" on June 27, 2012, and renamed the Directions as "Directions for the Pilot Program of Implementing Electronic Invoices in Consumption Channels". The revised directions was taking into force from July 1, 2012.
(4) Network Intellectual Property Law
The major developments in this year for the network intellectual property legal system are listed hereafter. The Trademark Act was significantly modified in the past year, and officially implemented by the Executive Yuan on July 1, 2012. The modified Trademark Act has explicitly specified the trademark law protection areas and the patterns of trademark application, expanded the coverage of trademark protection, added new provisions for jointly owned trademark, amended the conditions for refusal of registration, and specified the reasonable usage of trademarks. The modified Trademark Act has produced great impact on the e-commerce industry as explained below. Since the Trademark Act and Patent Act were modified on June 29, 2011 and December 21, 2011 respectively, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) amended the "Regulations Governing Electronic Application of Trademark" on June 29, 2012 and the "Regulations Governing Electronic Application of Patent" on July 3, 2012.
(5) Personal Information Protection Law
The major developments in recent years for the personal information protection law are listed hereafter. Since the Executive Yuan had drafted the amendments to the Computer-Processed Personal Data Protection Law some time earlier, and renamed as the Personal Information Protection Act, the Legislative Yuan passed the new version of Personal Information Protection Act on April 3, 2010 and it was announced by the Presidential Office on May 26, 2010. In this Act Article 19 to Article 22 and Article 43 were taking effect immediately, the remaining provisions in the modified Personal Information Protection Act were rectified and implemented on October 1, 2012. Then the Ministry of Justice announced the Enforcement Rules on September 26, 2012, and renamed the Rules as Personal Information Protection Act Enforcement Rules. In addition, Taiwan Personal Information Protection Administration System（TPIPAS） has put into effect since the end of 2010. The initial stage of main requirements and affected range for TPIPAS were established at December 2012, in which not only the division of responsibilities is explicitly defined, but as a criterion referenced exam the passing standard for domestic enterprises have the ability to obtain Data Privacy Protection Mark (DP Mark). Through DP Mark, hoping to assist enterprises to abide by Personal Information Protection Act and promote consumers to participate in e-commerce. DP Mark can improve the enterprise image and interface of the worldwide, which contribute the cross-border e-commerce. At present, there are seven companies have received the DP Mark.
(6) Consumer Protection Legal System
The main developments in this year for the consumer protection law are listed hereafter. The draft amendment on partial articales of the Consumer Protection Law were completed in June 2012. The draft articles are passed to relevant government offices, scholars and experts for discussion, and two public hearings were held since July 2012 over the draft version of Modified Consumer Protection Law. As this Modified Consumer Protection Law is very important for the development of e-commerce, the terms "mail order purchase" and "articles for standard contracts " were modified explicitly specifying that business operator should show the contents of articles in the standard contract to the consumer in a transaction. Besides, that business operators shall abide by the mandatory and prohibitory provisions of standard contracts. Accordingly, if there is any violation of the mandatory and prohibitory provisions of standard contracts, the burden of proof lies with the business operator. Considering the interests of consumers in special transactions, the law also specifies that business operators have the responsibility to inform the customer about enterprise-related messages and commodity service contents. The cooling off period may be ruled out when the transcation is about some special goods and services.
In addition, the "Mandatory Provisions to Be Included in and Prohibitory Provisions of Standard Form Contract for Online Game Point Cards" was officially announced on June 11, 2012. The business operator shall specify which matters are to be recorded and not to be recorded, and the issuer of game points (cards) shall be responsible for the contract security deposit. The aim of the amendment was to protect the interests of consumers with respect to prepayments.
With the upsurge of personal online banking services, the security of online banking services have been receiving wide attention, Financial Supervisory Commission of Executive Yuan noticed "Mandatory and Prohibitory Provisions of Standard Form Contract for Personal Online Banking Services" (stipulation shall be effective from 8th, January 2013) on October 8, 2012. The rules have clearly defined the online banking requirements for ensuring the correctness of received messages and the confirmation mechanism for ensuring the correctness of e-document(electronic record) contents.
E-commerce Standards
The structure of e-commerce standards has significant influence over user interface, basic functions, as well as the data definition and encoding methods. According to the International Information Standard, the range of information can be roughly divided into 5 categories: operating procedure, data format, unit description, operation code, and communication protocol.
Taking the electronics industry as an example, many enterprises in our country have adopted the RosettaNet data exchange standards for e-commerce applications. For the manufacturing and commercial sectors, many enterprises in our country have introduced international process standards, such as SCOR, CPFR, and IFRS, for the e-commerce applications. If there are no appropriate industrial standards around the world,, enterprises may choose to use open standards, such as e-BASE, CCOR, DCOR, so as to be in line with international development. Enterprises in other industries may also use suitable standards in reference to international standards.
For the promotion of international e-commerce standards, the United Nations Conference on Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) has given high priority for promoting trade facilitation, e-commerce, and supporting activities. For the part of e-commerce, UN/CEFACT has long been assisting the development of UN/EDIFACT standards in order to promote eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) and Web Services standards. UN/CEFACT has also developed the UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology (UMM) and related business processes, as well as re-useable core components.
In Asia, China has developed the e-commerce information technology standards, and enacted more than 550 information technology standards. However, their e-commerce standards are mainly converted from international standards or EDI standards, so they still need sustained development in many areas. In Japan, the e-commerce standards are mainly influenced by large-scale enterprise applications. Taking the electronics industry as an example, their e-commerce standards mostly come from the RosettaNet (RN) standards. However, in recent years, the UN/CEFACT standards have been increasingly referenced by all industries in Japan in their effort to create their own e-commerce standards and applications. In India, the development of e-commerce standards is taking a different direction because of different industry structure, but they still pretty much follow the international standards (UN/CEFACT standards). One of the industry sectors receiving lots of world attention is the software industry in India, which is pretty much in line with international standards, and their markets are well developed.
Service Section
Domain Name Service
Tw is one of nearly 300 top-level domain names (TLD), and managed by Taiwan TWNIC. For Taiwan businesses hope to do business globally, they need to consider registering other top-level domain names. Global domain names can be divided into three categories: the generic top-level domain name (gTLD), the country code top-level domain name (ccTLD) and the top internationalized domain name (IDN); corporate domain names are divided into main domain and sub-domain. The main domain name is usually used by an enterprises for building brand or its official website. The sub-domain covers marketing, trademark protection and other purposes, and is mainly used to expand the strength of the corporate marketing force and intangible assets (soft assets). Generally speaking, the main domain name cannot be freely changed, but sub-domain names should be frequently re-examined and adjusted as enterprises evolve.
TWNIC provided registration services of localized ".臺灣" top-level country code domain names for Taiwan’s Community at 2:30 pm on August 17th 2010, and provided the registered "中文.tw", achieving the registration service of "中文.臺灣" service, starting at 2:30 p.m. on October 14th and open registration limited for top-level Chinese domain name of "中文.臺灣”, registered "中文.臺灣" domain name, while acquiring "中文.tw" domain name at the same time.
In addition, on November 3rd, 2010, the TWNIC Domain Name Committee’s 72nd meeting agreed to amend the attribute type domain names in English "org.tw" application conditions and application of the revised "org.tw" conditions: the country legally registered foundation or non-profit corporation aggregate; foreign non-profit organizations in their national law to set up a registration with specific needs, which earned the consent of the domain Name Commission. The amendments took effect on December 30th, 2010 00:00.
Currently, the service type of domestic domain name launched 4 types: the attribute types in English and Chinese, and the property types in Chinese and English. English domain names are totaled to 307,633 at in the end of June 2012, the sum including attribute English domain names is totaled to 232,248, while the property English domain names are totaled to 75,385. The total number of Chinese domain names reached 210,855; among which, attributes types in Chinese totaled 124,877, “中文.tw”; the property types in Chinese totaled 42,989, and “中文.臺灣”domain names totaled 42,989 .
Taiwanese businessmen are everywhere in the global market. Many of them have started to notice the importance of domain name, and treat domain names, trademarks, and patents as part of the company assets, even though many of them recognized the importance of it later than their European and American counterparts. For future development and operation of the companies, the businessmen need to consider several aspects. First of all, they need to consider where their main markets are or where they will expand into in the future and obtain these areas’ domain names, because these areas will directly affect company operation. Secondly, they need to consider these areas’ economic potential and their growth, for example, China not only opened more domain names than Taiwan, it was also ranked among the top 10 countries to have the most registered domain names. Therefore, when Taiwanese businessmen are thinking about registering for domain names, this is a country they cannot forget. Other countries that businessmen cannot forget are South American countries like Brazil and Argentina.
Cash Flow Service
After many years of development, the internet has become one of the most important channels for information and product exchange, and e-commerce cash flow in B2B, G2B, G2C, B2C, and C2C models have also increased tremendously. Because e-commerce offers a more convenient and more secure cash flow service, it has brought the government, companies and consumers a broader market, and online cash flow service has also become a daily routine for most people.
B2B cash flow is a company payment service centered on e-payment. Banks use financial EDI payment and financial XML payment services to offer transaction between companies and banks. Federal EDI (FEDI) uses EDI standard formats to transmit payment information between payers, payees, and banks. This increases the payment relationship by utilizing the B2B process to achieve cash and information transaction simultaneously.
Electronic services offered by the B2B company cash flow includes many advantages, such as 24/7 operation, supply chain management, and easy company integration. In routine business operations between core companies and supply chains, banks actively act as online payment and financing roles, shifting the traditional labor consuming credit process to online financing process system, and this process allows the online payment to expand to online financing. In 2011, financial centers produced company purchasing cards in order to accompany the organization and the establishment of the supply chain system. These cards offer downstream distributors to purchase products via online payment tools, which solidify the relationships between banks and companies, and it also became an important element of our country’s economic development.
Because the government needs to collect taxes and payments from the general public, it has assigned banks to help people make payments and pay taxes with safer payment methods. Financial centers also accommodate online government services, and accept payments on the government’s behalf, and payment tools include IC debit cards, bank accounts, and credit cards. In the future, these financial centers will further support the Ministry of Finance’s policy of “update and renewal of tax information integration project”, and offer immediate tax information for people, which includes immediate tax search, immediate payment, and immediate write off in order to increase the added value of the nation’s tax paying platform. Because the wide usage of mobile APPs, the Ministry of Finance will soon design a mobile APP to allow people to pay taxes using their cell phones and mobile devices. People can then use any tools with internet access to pay taxes, and they will not have to leave the house to make payments.
Our country has very diverse and complete B2C payment and cash flow services. Online stores in Taiwan offer few major payment methods, including ATM transaction, online credit card full payment, online transfer via banks, pay on delivery, and online ATM transaction. In the 5 methods mentioned above, since financial centers have been promoting the IC debit card payment, and consumers are able to make payment for online auctions, online stores, and other payments. There were a total of 392 financial centers that offer such service in June 2012, and 55.96 million IC cards have been issued to the consumers. Data has also shown that online payments, in-store payments and payment via transaction using IC debit cards have reached 10.8 million transactions in the first half of 2012, and the transaction numbers for 2011 was 21.08 million. The distribution and usage of IC cards in store and online have greatly increased.
In recent years, the online payment method has become a major service for the service market. However, both parties in C2C transactions are always individuals; it can be difficult to manage them collectively. Therefore, to meet the demand of C2C online transactions, many banks now offer some related transaction and payment systems, and these systems allow both individuals and companies to apply. There is no rating system, no registration period, and no complicated usage and cash withdraw limit in such systems. In addition, there are few benefits to these systems, for example, it can be applied online, only require 3 minutes, no deposit, no limitation on new or used products, and individual store owners have a credit limit as high as NTD 200,000. Banks make all these offers hoping they can meet the needs of this demanding market.
Logistics Service
There are 4 major aspects to e-commerce logistics, which are business flow, cash flow, information flow and logistics. The actual product logistics are usually the main topic. There are 3 logistics services for our country’s e-commerce logistics, and they are the “logistics management service”, the “delivery service”, and the “3rd party integrated logistics service”. For the “logistics management service”, many e-commerce companies have their own delivery systems and logistics facilities, so e-commerce logistics companies (EC logistics) mainly offer online store owners storage units and management services, and EC logistics also help the owners to manage orders and product delivery services. For “delivery service”, many online store owners have their own storage, but they assign logistics companies for product delivery; therefore, EC logistics offer services such as home delivery and pay on delivery to help these owners market and sell their products. Lastly, if online store owners want to out-source storage management and product delivery, some EC logistics also offer integrated services that combine custom clearance, delivery, storage, product process, order management and payment collection together, which is a complete supply chain service, and this is the core value of the “3rd party integrated logistics service”.
The main logistics service providers used by e-commerce companies in Taiwan are President Transnet Express, Pelican Express, Kerry TJ Logistics, HCT Logistics, Chunghwa Post, and JT Express. Since 2008, Chunghwa Post has been actively setting up logistics centers around the country, offering product marketing, managing warehouses, and delivery services in order to supply customers with complete supply chain services, hoping their services can attract more online store owners.
Many national and international e-commerce companies also cooperate with logistics companies to form cross-industries partnerships. For instance, the well known Japanese online store, the Rakuten Ichiba Market, formed partnership with the convenience store 7-11, which is a subsidiary of President Transnet Corp. and the President Transnet Express in order to penetrate the Taiwanese online shopping market. In their partnership, the Rakuten Ichiba Market focuses on product management and online marketing; 7-11 convenient stores handle real store channel and product pick up services; while President Transnet Express takes care of the product delivery and payment on delivery services. This partnership between the three giants formed a complete e-commerce marketing platform that integrated business flow, logistics, cash flow and information flow. When e-commerce companies are planning for logistics services, they must recognize what each logistics services are offering. Before business owners decide which logistics services to pick from, they must pay attention to the characteristics of different products, the phase of their business development, and their business operation capability in order to satisfy the need of the customers and to make profit for the companies.
Platform Service
E-commerce platform providers have grown exponentially in their development on function, interface, and added value. Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) have become the basic framework and concept because of the rapid development of cloud computing.
Services that the platforms offer includes online shopping centers, online stores, online auction houses, and group buying online stores. In addition, the core of the platform service contains business flow, logistics, cash flow and information flow, which can apply to diverse transaction and logistics services. For example, new store establishment, marketing resources, customer management, information security, payment and delivery services.
It is important to notice that the products and services offered by the platform service cannot all be displayed using the same interface and presentation, and this is vital for the future development trend of the platform service. Therefore, it’s important to notice that the “platforms for high-end products” can offer superior quality and shopping experience and the “platforms with experts for professional products” can offer customers expert opinion via social networks before they purchase products. There are many business opportunities still to be discovered for platform service to develop.
Furthermore, the cooperation between APP commerce and e-commerce will steadily increase because of highly popularized smart phones and tablets. In addition, the development of cloud computing is becoming more essential, and it allows the application of online resources to be more flexible. Therefore, the development of mobile and cloud computing can stimulate more innovative service models. If companies can seize the opportunities offered by mobile and cloud computing, they can integrate the virtual and real-life channels and greatly increase their impact with consumers via their platforms.
Furthermore, the cooperation between APP commerce and e-commerce will steadily increase because of highly popularized smart phones and tablets. In addition, the development of cloud computing is becoming more essential, and it allows the application of online resources to be more flexible. Therefore, the development of mobile and cloud computing can stimulate more innovative service models. If companies can seize the opportunities offered by mobile and cloud computing, they can integrate the virtual and real-life channels and greatly increase their impact with consumers via their platforms.
Security Service
Certificates have been tightly related to the Electronic Signature Laws since the development of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and the implementation of Electronic Signature Laws in 2002. Certificates apply not only to online government applications, but certificates have also been widely used in the general public, and the numbers of the certificates issued have been increasing every year. Among all the certificates used by the general public, financial certificates are one of the most issued in Taiwan. Today, there are as many as 10 million financial certificates issued, and more than 1.6 million of them are active certificates. Besides the traditional usage of certificates, there are also many other applications. For instance, certificates can be used for online tax payments, electronic documents, electronic receipts and electronic insurances, and certificates can also be used as identifications, such as natural person certificates, corporation certificates, medical certificates, and financial certificates. Moreover, digital server certificates like Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) used for encrypted data transmission and server identification is also a very important certification service. The demand for certification service has been increasing, so the development trend for certification service will expand toward mobile devise certifications, electronic security of financial certifications and cloud computing certifications.
The Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a technology developed by the reliance mechanism of online certification. The rights of both parties in a transaction are protected by the security function of the public key and digital signatures. Through the certificates issued by institutions trusted by both parties, they can ensure and trust the security of privacy, identifiable source, complete information, and Non-repudiation of transactions. SSL digital server certificates are also built upon the reliance mechanism. Besides issuing certificates, one of the most important operations of the certification authorities is to check the identification of any applicants. For example, certification authorities must check the real identities of e-commerce business owners. The most commonly seen identification method is through Organization Validation. The goal for our country is to move toward the reliance mechanism of the information exchange platform.
In terms of website authentication, the “Chinese E-commerce Market and Transaction Security Promotion Project” promoted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs also includes the “e-commerce transaction security education project” for online store owners. This project promotes transaction confirmation and establishes confirmation tools for e-commerce websites and consumers. The design includes active display technology, linkage with EV SSL digital server certificates, Chinese characters display and distance Trojan horse monitoring. Website authentication is also among one of the few systems in the country that combines with SSL digital server certificates and offers diverse inspections at the same time. In addition, it has active display to prevent fraud. The execution of the “e-commerce transaction security education project” and the promotion of “website authentication” not only offer e-commerce website operators and users a complete and trusted inspection mechanism, it is also a practical and very functional system. The value and the concept of e-commerce security have finally been established through the promotion of these policies.
Application Section
Business to Business e-commerce
With the popularity of Internet, Taiwan's e-commerce industry is growing 20% per year. The government hopes to help Taiwan’s e-commerce become a trillion dollar industry; it counsels the creation of many platforms to assist in the e-marketing sales of goods to China or other overseas markets. On the other hand, enterprises are also committed to cross-country e-commerce; however, they face the uncertainty of trading risks. According to the MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute) survey, the majority of companies still think that “Logistics Control and Management" and "Cash Flow" will be the biggest challenges. In addition, the value of the business operations has shifted from OEM manufacturing to ODM manufacture, and the development of brand building. Combining mobile e-commerce and ICT applications will enhance the value chain of both upstream and downstream system vendors information application level, driven by the flexibility and the speedy operation of the entire chain.
In the e-commerce development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), SMEs are no longer running around ‘carrying a suitcase’; with the wise use of Internet marketing, it can sell products around the world. Therefore, in response to the trends offered by the e-commerce era, ample resources are provided, and comprehensive counseling, in addition to enhancing the domestic SME e-commerce operations and marketing capabilities, while strengthening the application of e-commerce marketing to promote SMEs and to make good use of Internet Marketing to increase revenue. These measures aim to assist export-oriented industries and SMEs, and enhance international Internet marketing skills in order to promote and apply an international platform, and actively develop the overseas market, establish new channels and create a new Blue Ocean business opportunity.
Business to Customer e-commerce
According to a study of the EC Legislation & Infrastructure Building-up Project, eshops operating in Internet shopping, profit in these stores accounted for 30.7% (breakeven is 20.2%); due to the growing number of new stores, stores’ profit in 2011 was relatively lower. In addition to this reasons, compared with the 2011, there were no obvious differences; compared with the same period in 2011, over 50% of store businesses grew, and 46.8% of stores had increased revenue.
In addition, the main business type of Taiwan eshops is “shop platform”, with the main operating stores up to 89.5%, which is higher than the 79.2% in 2011. The auction platform for business sellers accounted for approximately 35.2%, compared to 43.2% last year. The reduction of the auction platform resulted from the large numbers of competitors; stores were also choosing the shopping platform when starting their e-commerce due to the lower operating costs reason. In another business model which aims to become the supplier to shopping sites, it is relatively easier for the store to take advantage of business opportunities this way, at a rate of 25.7%.As cash flow and logistics matures, the number of businesses setting up their own shopping stores grew slightly from 23.0% in 2011 to 24.8%.
In the Multi-platform business model, the single platform type is the main type; 48.5% of the stores use a single platform, and 32.3% of businesses use 2 platforms, 14.5% use three platforms. The use of two or more platforms enables stores to take a multi-platform expansion path to enhance turnover. At least 2.2% choose this approach to elevate their operating businesses, Benefiting from low-cost, stores are ready and willing to sell their products this way.
In regard to stores’ management style, 45% only use Internet stores; 33% of entity stores operations Internet stores,; 14% of the stores choose virtual and entity store operations at the same time in order to contact more customer groups. From Internet virtual store cross entity store is 8%, and most stores have been operating successfully. In order to increase customer trust and reputation, businesses are choosing to have entity stores as well.
Internet stores are very concerned about the logistics issue, 86.1% of stores need the service of real-time cargo tracking, so stores and buyers can track the status of goods shipped; 65.9% stores need the service of payment collection, and logistics services are a good way to deal with cash flow problems. Another 59.8% of the businesses hope to have the ability to reverse logistics (reverse logistics services); 48.7% of Internet stores choose to home delivery service; 29.7% of Internet stores allow customers to return merchandise, and 10.7% of e-stores will designate personnel to replace goods. The above statistics show that e-stores are most concerned about whether logistics shippers can provide cash flow within the variety of logistics processing services.
Stores operating in overseas markets accounted for about 28%, 20% of Internet stores plan to invest in overseas stores, while another 23% of the stores are assessing whether to seek sales in overseas markets. Stores’ overall overseas sales will remain quite high; 90.3% of the stores operating in overseas markets who are in the Chinese mainland market offer shop at home service due to lower entry barriers, the huge consumer market in mainland China, and the low language barrier. Therefore these stores make mainland China the first major market for overseas sales; followed by the Chinese District of Hong Kong and Macau, accounting for 54.8% of such sales, and another 29% thanks to the close proximity of the Southeast Asian market. However, the operating revenue of most of the stores in the overseas market is not high, with 74.2% of the stores accounting for less than 10% of the total revenue.
Digital content and value-added services mainly include digital learning, online video and online games. According to the market grid definition, digital learning is divided into three categories: core industries, smart classroom and learning terminal. Digital learning industry output value reached about NT $ 33.22 billion in 2011, representing a growth of 25.04% compared with 2010; growth is slowing down. As the demand side continues to mature, it should promote the industry through innovative applications extended to "smart classrooms" with "the learning terminal” mentioned above, and action learning, e-book packages and cloud teaching trends, driven by software and hardware integration and cross-industry value-added, innovative new industrial applications, making the e-learning industry more competitive. In addition, online video is being incorporated into the movie media streaming service, the music download service, digital television services and Internet-demand video; online video has become a trend, and the online video site usually post online video advertisements into the pipeline. 2011 digital video and audio production value reached about NT $ 59.4 billion, representing a growth of 31.71% over 2009. Online video, such as digital audio and video rental applications are extending due to cloud development. Digital music copyright issues also need to be clarified and settled. In regard to on line games, in 2011 Taiwan's digital game industry remained in a highly competitive situation, with an output value of about NT $ 43.62 billion, an increase of 3.36% compared with 2010; the massive multiplayer online game market is becoming saturated. Taiwan manufacturers trying to enter the Chinese mainland market still face access restrictions, so as online games margins grow; companies actively compete in the development of homemade games and in accessing overseas markets. Therefore, determining how to adapt to the local culture to grasp market opportunities, how to apply the innovative cross-platform games and how to take advantage of social networking sites from virtual channels branched out into overseas markets will be the issues that the online game industry needs to face.
In Internet marketing, according to the Taipei Digital Marketing Association (DMA) statistics, the overall amount of advertising in Taiwan continues to show slight growth; Internet advertising is still enjoying the highest growth of Taiwan's top five media. With the Internet becoming ubiquitous as well as consumers’ increasing reliance on the Internet, corporate use of the Internet technology has contributed to corporate marketing, establishing a popular trend. Evaluating the efficiency of various interactive marketing channels can reveal more potential projects in the future, such as social media marketing, and mobile device marketing, which have enjoyed growth and development. Overall, corporate social media, online video, search engines, and mobile marketing help to maintain considerable optimism that these corporate marketing tools will continue to increase; gradually declining internet marketing tools include: email, paid search advertising, online classifieds, live directory listings and Internet display ads for advertisers.
Customer to Customer e-commerce
According to an Institute for Information Industry survey, on online shopping users’ behavior, nearly 90% of users think that convenience is an important motivator for online shopping, and price is the major reason attracting shoppers. In addition, goods on the web reduces many fixed costs to offer more competitive pricing is the main lure for online consumption. Fashion goods comprises the highest proportion of consumption goods; online users spend the most on fashion goods such as clothing, shoes, bags and beauty care, followed by books, tickets and CDs.
In the data collection on shopping information, online users sharing and bloggers’ recommendations are the key to influence consumer psychology. Before online shopping, 63% of users will attempt to collect product information in forum sharing; according to the survey, another important factor is a friend’s recommendation. More than 70% of users search goods through the Internet first and then shopping through physical channels, especially for 3C products such as computers, photographic equipment and mobile devices.
In the cognitive level of online users’ psychology, users believe in the eWOM before shopping; the network evaluation will influence users’ purchasing decisions. In addition, users may also easily build up trust in online shopping sites based on their own shopping habits and selection of merchandise directly to their perceived reliability of websites; however the survey further showed that if there is a cheaper site selection, users immediately forsake their shopping loyalty to the site, and go to the site to buy the cheapest version of the product they desire.
In overseas shopping, Taobao Marketplace of Mainland China is currently the main overseas shopping website; 50% of overseas shopping involves Taobao Marketplace, followed by Amazon website in the U.S., accounting for 28.4%. Domestic personal agencies are the main method for overseas shopping.
About 50% of overseas commodities are from Japan, and Japan is the main source of foreign goods. Over 50% of the purchased goods are clothing accessories; the users selecting overseas shopping are usually more sensitive to trends, using overseas channels to buy fashionable design items.
In mobile shopping, mobile games are the most purchased goods.
Smartphones and mobile phone accessories expanded applications and triggered greater consumption, taking the lead in the shopping of related goods. But the hardware environment of mobile devices is still not universal; however, we can see that the penetration rate of mobile devices has influenced the penetration rate of mobile shopping. The improvement of mobile devices and hardware is definitely the primary goal of the development of mobile shopping.
Government to Business/ to Customer e-commerce
The third stage of the e-government project “High Quality Network Government Project” expired in December 2011. In order to extend early electronic government achievements, RDEC (Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, Executive Yuan) referring to development trends of advanced countries in e-government, in response to the subjective and objective environmental changes at home and abroad, plans to provide the full innovative services to meet the needs of the people. In order to enhance its administrative efficiency, overall government service quality, and provide the innovative services that meet the needs of the people, the Executive Yuan approved the fourth stage of the e-government project (2012-2016) in June 10, 2010.
In regard to the status of e-government application services, subjective and objective environmental changes match the trends of global decentralized governments, market-oriented businesses and digital citizens; e-government contributes to the development of civil society and a justice society in constructing a network society. These developments have had a considerable impact on the effectiveness of e-government with the growing emphasis on public information services (Public value of IT, PVIT), including the three main directions: Internal Operational Efficiency; Outside Public Service and Fair Policy, Mission Complete and Participation of Fair Policy.
Taiwan e-government has experienced three stages in its promotion efforts, breakthroughs in service innovation, performance and digital opportunities etc. the use of e-government services for the public and enterprises is increasing. In addition, Taiwan's e-government effectiveness was affirmed by an award in international competitions: the World Economic Forum 2012 praised Taiwan's long-term investment and development of ICT services which boosted the overall national competitiveness, exemplifying the transition of resource poor countries into the global high-tech success stories.
The reforming of government organizations, development and continuation of e-government and creation of future-oriented services is of critical importance; the fourth stage of e-government will continue to make good use of the applications of emerging technologies, and establish an information-sharing mechanism, effectively integrating central and local authority services and resources to promote open and transparent governance and services, while taking into account the protection of personal privacy and the need for conveniences in people's lives. Innovative services are required to achieve the vision of "service without boundaries and a better life for all citizens”, by providing cross-domain quality services, constructing a green energy environment, promoting fair opportunities to participate in the three goals, and offering more services to meet the needs of the people, enhance public recognition and participation, and elicit satisfaction with e-government services.
Emerging and related applications
Emerging e-commerce and related applications include mobile e-commerce, group purchases, social networking, cloud computing, e-commerce for public service, etc.
Mobile e-commerce through mobile devices allows users to complete transactions on the go, which differs from the traditional e-commerce business models. Looking at the development of mobile e-commerce, telecom operators, brand owners, software vendors and network platform providers all play a dominant role in the market, having launched mobile ad purchasing, mobile payments, mobile banking, mobile productivity software development mode and other various types of mobile commerce applications, combined with the Internet community, information and communication technology (such as: augmented reality (AR), QR code), in addition to the development of innovative mobile applications.
From the perspective of commercial logic, the operation of group purchase websites is based on the cost of advertising and marketing in regard to product discounts; this kind of business is quite common in real life. At present, the world’s group purchase market is cooling. In 2012, Taiwan experienced Moumi (糯米網): Taiwan’s purchase group stands to terminate its business; M.crazymike.tw (瘋狂賣客) combined with Lashou (拉手網) and Hawoo (好物網) group purchase websites, react to changes in the market. On the other hand, according to the GoodLife website compiling publicly available data for each group purchase website in June 2012, the three group purchase websites (GOMAJI, Groupon Taiwan and 17P) cover 93% of the group purchasing market, the bigger size seems to depend on the classification of similar items; other companies are also increasingly finding it difficult to market their goods. However, Taiwan's new types of group purchase industry will continue to flexibly develop marketing and diversification, hoping to create another new market opportunity. Consumers buy according to word-of-mouth in regard to marketing platforms, popularity determines the developmental direction of the platform. Integrated firms’ platforms need to be able to offer predetermined schedule payments, and test the pipeline of new stores, as well as link various communities to strengthen the overall marketing force.
In social networking applications, e-commerce and social media possess development strengths and limitations; combining the strengths of e-commerce and social media will bring more innovative applications, for example, community optimization resulting in a more intellectual content. At the same time, the focus on community development is more conducive to the promotion of the actual shopping behavior of consumers; communities can also develop Internet marketing characteristics such as content shopping guide, focus group buy and building expert brand name; combined with mobile applications, the community's immediate appraisal is conducive to mobile payment development and enhanced suitability of the business model.
In cloud computing applications, rising demand and penetration of smart mobile devices has become more widespread, and because of the innovation and application levels, such as the gradual extension of the basic calls to read, query, entertainment, trading and work, the privacy of financial transactions and other important information on mobile devices, especially the user access to confidential corporate information is an increasing problem, so tightening security in regard to mobile devices is a critical enterprise goal, while being gradually combined with cloud applications.
The Internet combines E-commerce and public welfare, public welfare information will encompass more of the public very quickly through various platforms, combining Taiwan’s Internet sales, expanding the scope of public services, and providing more help to disadvantaged groups. For example: “First Mile, Kid’s Smile: Arts for Children in 319 Townships” in the hope of narrowing the information gap between urban and rural areas, so that every child in Taiwan can see performances of children's drama. From the public website “PayEasy” through "Adopt Farmland" to building direct trading platforms for consumers and rice farmers, combined with the organic internet sales of Taiwan's production and CAREUS (Children ARE US) foundation through the network and non-network exposure directly guide users to support the foundation's official shopping center. Therefore, making good use of social network tools (that is low-skilled and low-cost medium of e-commerce) strengthens the non-profit organization fundraising message, in order to attract more people to participate in public action. E-commerce and the public will continue to focus on the abovementioned applications.
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