Ecommerce - our springboard to the world
With the rapid development and wide acceptance of Ecommerce throughout the world, it is justifiable for a company to venture into this new, exciting arena of opportunities. Since Ecommerce has been widely accepted throughout the world, it may prove to be a profitable venture for ARC Pte Ltd.
In Singapore, market research reports provided by our company were well received by potential investors and major companies who would like to expand into the Southeast Asian region. As popular as this may seems, ARC Pte Ltd hopes to attract foreign investors who would like to invest in Southeast Asia and therefore be likely to purchase our reports for research prior entering into this highly competitive market.
As our regional head quarters, Singapore has supported Ecommerce. In response to the wide acceptance of Ecommerce, Singapore had introduced a blueprint for Internet-based electronic commerce that aims to generate business of about S$4 billion (US$2.385 billion) by 2003. The government also aims to target at least 25 leading logistics, manufacturing and services companies to set up their e-commerce regional operations here, with Compaq Computer Corp. of the United States just joining the bandwagon last week.
A group of Singapore companies outlined plans to group together into virtual retail communities aimed at encouraging Internet shopping. The Online Technologies Consortium (OTC), backed by the country's National Computer Board (NCB), plans to train local industry in mapping out strategies to sell its products on the World Wide Web.
Research by
Singapore's National Computer Board (NCB) has found two percent of the
city-state's population as having bought goods over the Internet. It said
the fledgling industry has the potential to expand four-fold in the next
six months, as illustrated below:
| E-Commerce forecasts for Singapore | 1998 | 2001 |
| Users buying goods and services over the Web | 37,085 | 478,934 |
| Year-end commerce revenue (in US millions) | $20.97 | $855.43 |
The survey was conducted among 1,500 randomly selected adults aged between 18 to 55 years old by market research firm AC Nielsen-SRS. The survey began by attempting to discover some basic information about PC and Internet use.
IDC Research had also reported that there are 131,470 people accessing the Internet in Singapore. IDC estimates that the total number of Internet users will increase to 219,778 by the end of 1998 and 1.35 million by 2001. IDC also estimates that World Wide Web users in Singapore will increase to 198,773 by the end of 1998 and will grow to 1.34 million by 2001, justifying the huge potential customers the market has to offer.
Singapore is moving to secure its share of the multi-billion dollar electronic commerce market by introducing legislation that provides a comprehensive legal framework for electronic transactions.
Singapore is the first in Southeast Asia to formally define the rights and responsibilities of all parties involved in e-commerce, and the Electronic Transactions Bill will help Singapore become a trusted location for e-commerce, according to Trade and Industry Minister Lee Yock Suan.
The bill includes a commercial code that clearly defines the rights and obligations of those involved in e-commerce transactions. For instance, it spells out the requirements for an electronic contract and the conditions for electronic signatures and records to have the same legal effect as their physical counterparts. It also sets up a so-called "public key infrastructure" where specially appointed Certification Authorities act as trusted third parties in electronic transactions.
Another section provides for the acceptance of electronic documents by the public sector while a fourth and final section relates to network service providers (NSPs). Specifically, it protects Internet Service Providers and other NSPs from being held responsible for third party content over which they have no control.
Also passed was the National Computer Board (Amendment) Bill 1998, which formalises the NCB's enlarged role. The board is now tasked with developing the information technology (IT) industry and raising the country's economic performance through IT. The bill gives legal weight to its new responsibilities, including its new role as Controller of Certification Authorities.
As such, Ecommerce
will cater to large amount of Internet users who form a large pool of potential
customers for our company's products.
Going Global
ARC Pte Ltd
planned to expand its business to Europe. The first country of the venture
is Italy. For the last two years, there has been a cry in the Italian Internet
market: "the development of e-commerce in our country is blocked on the
supply side". It seemed that the consumers were there, waiting to find
useful and convenient shopping opportunities on the net, but nobody was
there to sell to them. There is a huge pool of potential online customers,
but no company had taken the lead to do so.
In April 1999, The Industry Standard reported that there are 1.5 million heavy users of the Internet in Italy. The average heavy user connected to the Net 6.8 times a week for around 33 minutes, reaching a total of three hours and 46 minutes per week. It seems apparent to any prospective company who is venturing into Ecommerce, that Italy presents a host of opportunities.
There were only 35 electronic shopping sites (defined as sites that accept orders or booking online) on the Italian net in 1997, as counted by the Osservatorio Internet Italia, a research group supported by several of the country's top corporations. There were about three times that number in 1998 according to other reports. In 1999, the number grew to about 500, according to recent research by the same Observatory.
More than ever before, Italians are going online for products and services, according to a recent study by the Osservatorio Internet Italia.
Nearly 130,000
Italians have purchased goods and services online, according to the report.
Among the products, computer software ranked number one (25 percent), followed
by books and CDs (21 percent), gifts (12 percent) and hardware (10 percent).
Travel products, financial and other services, and a variety of other products
offered through the Italian online shopping sites made up the remaining
percentage.
| E-Commerce forecasts for Italy | 1998 | 2001 |
| Users buying goods and services over the Web | 273,000 | 990,000 |
| Year-end commerce revenue (in US millions) | $74.9 | $822.5 |
Italy proves
to be a good starting ground for expansion into the European market. Potential
investors from Italy will find our products useful in their expansion to
the Southeast Asia market. Within a year, ARC Pte Ltd hopes to expand its
business to France and England, who are the next most likely markets that
we will try to penetrate.
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