Competitive use of Information at E-bay.com - Essay Example

Most relevant influencing factor that paved the way for a new thrust in doing business is the prolific use of technological advancement and application generated by the Internet. Global organizations reportedly operate within an Internet economy. According to Fichter (2003), “the term “Internet economy” emphasizes the networking of economic actors and processes by means of electronic communication media and the related change in structures of value creation, mechanisms of market function, professional life, and consumption patterns” (p. 26). Likewise, Bazdan (2011) asserted that “one of the newest evolving positive trends is electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or ecommerce.

The process consists of buying and selling various products or services over electronic systems, such as the Internet and other computer networks” (p. 45). From among the most identifiable successful participants in the Internet economy, two organizations from the United States are prominent: eBay.com and Amazon.com (Bazdan 2011). The current discourse focuses on presenting a critical analysis of eBay, including its brief historical overview, strategies and analysis of its performance using Porter’s five forces and SWOT.

History of E-Commerce (The Digital Age) Different studies have identified the origin of e-commerce from varied time frames. The earliest originating date was noted that “in its purest form, electronic commerce has existed for over 40 years, originating from the electronic transmission of messages during the Berlin airlift in 1948. From this; Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was the next stage of e-commerce development” (Obayi, 2011, p. 18). According to Hiser, Lanka, Li & Oliver (n.d.) the date that was identified to originate e-commerce was 1984 when “EDI, or electronic data interchange, was standardized through ASC X12.

This guaranteed that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another reliably” (p. 1). Both sources have acknowledged EDI as commonly present and instrumental in the development and growth of e-commerce. The popularity of use and applications offered by the Internet in 1993 was noted to have made a wave of effects, specifically labeled as first and second waves of the internet economy (Fichter, 2003). This meant that the evolution of global organizations that increasingly relied on the Internet gradually shifted their focus from “stationary computers and terminal devices” (Fichter, 2003, p. 26), to the proliferated use of mobile and telecommunication devices that could be linked directly on the organizations’ Internet providers.

The term e-commerce was likewise defined as “an electronic transaction is the sale or purchase of goods or services, whether between businesses, households, individuals, governments, and other public or private organizations, conducted over computer-mediated networks. The goods and services are ordered over those networks, but the payment and the ultimate delivery of the good or service may be conducted on- or off-line” (OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), 2001; cited in Fichter, 2003, p. 27). Likewise, Obayi (2011) clearly stipulated that e-commerce includes the following essential ingredients, to wit: “1.

Electronic trading of physical goods and of intangibles such as information. 2. All the steps involved in trade, such as on-line marketing, ordering payment and support for delivery. 3. The electronic provision of services such as after sales support