Global Information Summit 2000

Net Conference

Session 2 - "Electronic Commerce in the Digital Divide Era "

Start-Up 1
From: Takashi Tanemura (1) We would like to start the GIS online conference
This is Takashi Tanemura from the Nikkei Electronic Media Bureau. I have been appointed to be an assistant to the English side of the Global Information Summit (GIS) Online Conference. This e-mail based online conference is aimed at promoting the global information infrastructure formation, particularly Japan's infrastructure. Nikkei thought that we would be able to set up an forum to debate this issue as the largest economic daily in Asia. The online conference will be continued until early March so that we will be able to give suggestions to the face-to-face conference. The conference coordinator is Mr. Jim Johnson, vise president of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC) in Washington. In the meantime, we will hold separate discussions in Japanese. The coordinators are Mr. Toru Maekawa, Visiting Professor, Global Information and Telecommunication Institute, Waseda Univ. and Mr. Waichi Sekiguchi, senior staff writer for Nikkei. Starting the discussion, we would like you to post your self introduction and give us your some idea on what we will have to discuss here. Since the number of participants on the English side is quite limited, I would also appreciate if you can introduce anyone who would be interested participating in this online conference.
From: Wolfgang Hennes (2) topics
Ｍy name is Wolfgang Hennes, I am the Key Account Manager for the Bertelsmann company QuBiz (part of Bertelsmann media convergence). Before that I was owner of the business research service Hennes & Partner, Bonn. After I studied business administration at the Freie Universitat Berlin I was technological counsellor at the Hans-Bockler-Stiftung, counsellor for organization at Siemens-Nixdorf-Informationssysteme AG and scientific assistant at the study commission "Future of the media - Germanys road to the information society" from the German Bundestag. Since 1996 I am lecturer for media management in firms and media companies at the　Bauhaus University Weimar and project manager of the initiative "West African Internet". Topics I would like to discuss: - why are there just a few projects earning money with electronic commerce? - what is the future of mobile commerce (WAP, XML etc.), will this grow faster than electronic commerce? - media convergence: will TV/Internet/Telecommunication be one media? - what is the role of the Application Service Providers (ASP´s) in electronic commerce? - how are publishing and media houses dealing with free content in the net (mp3 etc.)? - is the payment/billing/accounting problem in the Internet really solved?
From: Takashi Tanemura (3) theme for the Japanese e-commerce conference
As promised, I would like to post what is going on in the Japanese e-commerce conference. Mr. Maekawa, the coordinator for this conference has proposed a few subjects that we are going to discuss. 1. What is the future of the so-called Japanese e-commerce model? For example, is the model which convenience stores play a key role as a distributor and payment method a transition period model or not? 2. What is preventing the growth of e-commerce in Japan? This theme has been discussed last year so we would just review last year's discussion and update if necessary. 3. How is dis-intermediation and infomediary going to affect the current business model? 4. The problems with business model patents. 5. Is digital divide going to be a big issue in Japan? How about in other countries around the world? 6. Will the growth of e-commerce have a positive effect on digital divide? For example, the growth of e-commerce might lead to lowering the telecommunication costs which will lessen the effect of digital divide. There will be other subjects recommended by other members. Meanwhile, the conference is starting with subject one, the future of the Japanese e-commerce model. I will explain a little bit about this model and will look forward to hearing comments about it and what is going on in your country.
From: Takashi Tanemura (4) Japanese e-commerce model
I will follow up on the convenience store model a little bit. At this time, convenience stores are keys to online shops in Japan. Shoppers can receive products they ordered through the web and use their payment system. I think the reason Mr. Maekawa mentioned about a "Japanese e-commerce model" is that having convenience stores play a key role in e-commerce seems very unique. One reason for their advantage is that there are numerous convenience stores in the metropolitan area so if you walk 5 to 10 minutes, you will be able to find one easily. Most of the people run to those stores when something is needed anytime. Some people might feel dangerous at night but most Japanese people still feel comfortable going to those stores anytime. Single people who have trouble receiving items delivered to them, since they are always out, can have their shipment delivered to convenience stores so they can pick it up when they come home. The other thing is that the first generation online shops that started in Japan were small shops and couldn't use credit cards for their customer's payment. The commission for credit cards are rather high in Japan and small shops couldn't afford them. So they are using either the convenience store system or the postal office system. The shops don't want to make their customers feel uncomfortable so they trust them and will send the products before they receive the payment. I feel this trust-the-customer system for small shops is very unique. But I heard that it is working quite well in Japan. The shops will include an invoice and a form which the customer can bring to the convenience stores to pay the bill. As the conference is moving along, some pointed out what is going on in the rural area where convenience stores are hard to come by. So I would say this model is effective in most metropolitan areas but there are question marks in other areas. This was a follow-up for people unfamiliar with the Japanese situation.
From: Dr. Marja Erola (5) from Finland
I work at National Technology Agency Tekes which is the main public organization for financing and coordinating technological research and development in Finland http://www.finland.fi, with the budget of appr. 400 MEURO this year. My own responsibilities are related to e-business, digital economy, information society and international co-operation, including the IST programme of the European Union http://www.cordis.lu/ist. Last year during the Finnish presidency of the EU my organization was responsible of organizing the Information Society conference of the European Union, IST99 http://www.ist99.fi in cooperation with the Directorate General for Information Society (DG INFSO) of the European Commission. This conference was especially important for us Finns as the new Commissioner responsible of Information Society and Enterprises since last autumn is a Finn, Mr Erkki Liikanen http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/liikanen/index_en.htm To help you non-Europeans better understand this issue, Mr Liikanen is the successor of Mr Bangemann in the European Commission, he got the old DG III, XIII plus also XXIII. As an example of Europe and e-business I would like to refer to a recent study, E-Business in a Connected World by the Bathwick Group. http://www.bathwick.com/index.html?pr/280999.html&1 In the picture of this press release link - which i especially like, I even asked the permission to use it in my slides - Finland is shown to be nro one "Doing well, forging ahead" among ten European countries. The research surveyed senior business executives in over 2,000 companies and 500 local government organizations. According to the survey, within Europe, Finland and Sweden are the most Internet advanced and Italy is showing the fastest growth. Europe's e-business laggards are France and Belgium. In terms of industry sectors, those making the greatest strides into e-business were high-tech manufacturing companies, telecommunications companies and Internet Service Providers (ISP's). Lagging behind are the banking and broadcast industries. Another reference I would like to give to catalyze discussion is a recent book "Electronic Commerce, Strategies and Models for Business-to-Business Trading" by Dr Paul Timmers (my good friend from the European Commission). In that book (page 9) he writes: " CommerceNet performs a yearly survey in the USA and Europe into barriers to electronic commerce. In 1998 it found that the main barriers differed between large and small companies, but also that there are quite significant differences between the USA and Europe. In the USA, the most important barriers for corporations were integration with legacy systems and executive awareness. For large corporations in Europe, the most important barriers were about trust and security, as well as international trade barriers. Small companies in both the USA and Europe did seem to agree about the lack of business models for making money. US SMEs were also concerned about the lack of qualified personnel, while European SMEs were worried about the complexity of electronic commerce. Andersen consulting, in a 1998 European survey, also found that the lack of clear regulation formed a particular barrier to electronic commerce development and that executives believe that governments should do more to develop a global legal framework. The cost of telecommunications and Internet service provider costs and their relative weight vary greatly across countries. " BTW today I happened to find out that one article available in the Internet which refereed quite lengthily to my text about regulation and the "camel curve" at a previous Nikkei on-line conference. The article is "New Zealand Law through the Internet: The Commonwealth Law Tradition and Socio-Legal Experimentation", by Luke Nottage in MURDOCH UNIVERSITY ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF LAW http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v6n1/nottage61.txt
From: Terrie Lloyd (6) topics
Ｍy name is Terrie Lloyd. I run an Internet incubation firm in Tokyo, called LINC Media. As part of our activities, we publish a number of web sites that would be useful background reading to those of you not in Japan. These are: www.cjnn.com, www.cjmag.co.jp, and www.japaninc.net. All three sites are in English and explain many of the questions that are being asked on this forum. I would like to know what the level of interest in Japan as a target market for Internet companies is these days? I know that in the USA, Japan is considered a tough market, but with mobile opportunities pushing the number of web browsers up dramatically, maybe it will soon become more interesting. Is that the case elsewhere?
From: William Schrader (7) personal presumption
This is William Schrader, I am chairman, CEO and founder of PSINet Inc. the first commercial Internet Service Provider. I'd like to know if anyone disagrees with my personal presumption that 80% of voice traffic will be VOIP by end of 2003, that 80% of all commerce will be dependent on the Internet in some meaningful way, that 80% of all countries will allow FULL maximum encryption without public key escrow, that 80% of all countries will treat the Internet as TAX FREE in all respects. Agree, or disagree?
From: Anthony M. Rutkowski (8) opinion
(７)William Schrader I'd like to know if anyone disagrees with my personal presumption that 80% of voice traffic will be VOIP by end of 2003, that 80% of all commerce will be dependent on the Internet in some meaningful way, that 80% of all countries will allow FULL maximum encryption without public key escrow, that 80% of all countries will treat the Internet as TAX FREE in all respects. Agree, or disagree? Some of those percentages may be a bit lower, but in general I agree, and the subject focus is right on target. An interesting related topic is what percentages of mass media - particularly audio distribution will occur via the Internet. The first thing my teenage daughter did with the new PSI ADSL service is start downloading MP3s.
From: William L. Schrader (9) video
Tony(Anthony M. Rutkowski), to answer your question, I suspect that all the short movie clips will go first, and then full length movies, on demand, for fees and for advertising. Tens of thousands of movies, hundreds of thousands of TV shows, any time, any where. Same time frame, EOY2003. (８)Anthony M. Rutkowski Some of those percentages may be a bit lower, but in general I agree, and the subject focus is right on target. An interesting related topic is what percentages of mass media - particularly audio distribution will occur via the Internet. The first thing my teenage daughter did with the new PSI ADSL service is start downloading MP3s.
From: Sherwin Faden (10) topics
My name is Sherwin Faden. I am the General Manager of Marketing for VeriSign Japan. We offer trust services on the Internet. We have two focuses in Japan. One has been in supplying certificates to websites so they can enable SSL security (the padlock at the bottom of the browser). The other focus is in supplying outsourcing services to companies so that they can issue certificates to their own subscribers and users. I would like to know opinions on fraud and how it will effect the economies of the Internet in Japan. At what rate will fraud grow compared to the growth rate of Electronic Commerce? How important is it for relationships to be "known" on the Internet in Japan as compared to other countries? How concerned are people about having their credit card numbers stolen? How concerned are people about giving out their personal information on the Internet? What event would lower the commission rates on credit cards? to Start-Up 2