amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
"Most of the good e-commerce stories follow a familar pattern. A company offers an application that is needed widely, and distributes it for free or at a loss on the Internet." Examples:
- real audio for sending streaming audio and video
- pointcast for streaming content
- winamp/MP3 for digital audio
- Yahoo as a search engine
- AOL as a community
- Shockwave for online gaming
- Java for Web language
- Netmeeting for Internet telephony with video
- Linux for an alternating operating system
- Amazon for online shopping
analyticalQ book review by Anne Ku
Complete Idiot's Guide to e-Commerce
by Rob Smith, Mark Speaker, Mark Thompson
Copyright © 2000, paperback 364 pages, Macmillan Computer Publishing
ISBN 0-7897-2194-5
9 September 2000
Like other Idiot Guides, this book starts from the beginning and tells the history, the evolution of e-commerce and explains the terminology of e-commerce.
Personally, I found the chapter on Internet Marketing Models most relevant. They identify six distinct types.
Affiliate Marketing: partnering with a business to send traffic to your site or bringing together similar organisations to form a critical mass. Best example: Amazon.com
Free knowledge model: not just information as content but also applications, gizmos etc. Generate revenue by advertising traffic. Examples: advisory or consulting sites.
Creative buzz model: what Hollywood stars and their PR firms do. Generate buzz by word of mouth, special promotions, etc.
External drive-in model: drive traffic directly into your site by advertising at special events, sporsoring events that attract your audience.
Repetitive one-hit-wonder model: a way of generating repeat, large volume traffic by changing the content. Examples: news and weather sites.
User group model: web site built around a community of like-minded individuals.
The greatest benefit of e-commerce is its ability to lower your transaction costs to zero.