Originally, electronic commerce was identified as the facilitation of commercial

transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchan

ge (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the
late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orde
rs or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automa
ted teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of
electronic commerce. Another form of e-commerce was the airline reservation syst
em typified by Sabre in the USA and Travicom in the UK.
From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterpris
e resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee invented the WorldWideWeb web browser and transformed a
n academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman everyday communic
ation system called internet/www. Commercial enterprise on the Internet was stri
ctly prohibited by NSF until 1995.[1] Although the Internet became popular world
wide around 1994 with the adoption of Mosaic web browser, it took about five yea
rs to introduce security protocols and DSL allowing continual connection to the
Internet. By the end of 2000, many European and American business companies offe
red their services through the World Wide Web. Since then people began to associ
ate a word "ecommerce" with the ability of purchasing various goods through the
Internet using secure protocols and electronic payment services.
[edit] Timeline
* 1979: Michael Aldrich invented online shopping[2]
* 1981: Thomson Holidays, UK is first B2B online shopping[citation needed]
* 1982: Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Telecom and us
ed for online ordering.
* 1984: Gateshead SIS/Tesco is first B2C online shopping and Mrs Snowball, 7
2, is the first online home shopper[citation needed]
* 1985: Nissan UK sells cars and finance with credit checking to customers o
nline from dealers' lots.[citation needed]
* 1987: Swreg begins to provide software and shareware authors means to sell
their products online through an electronic Merchant account.[citation needed]
* 1990: Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a
NeXT computer.
* 1994: Netscape releases the Navigator browser in October under the code na
me Mozilla. Pizza Hut offers online ordering on its Web page. The first online b
ank opens. Attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online.
Adult materials also become commercially available, as do cars and bikes. Netsca
pe 1.0 is introduced in late 1994 SSL encryption that made transactions secure.
* 1995: Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com and the first commercial-free 24 hour
, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio start broadcasting. Dell a
nd Cisco begin to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions. eBay is
founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.
* 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printin
g from the Web.
* 1998: Alibaba Group is established in China. And it leverage China's B2B a
nd C2C, B2C(Taobao) market by it's Authentication System.
* 1999: Business.com sold for US $7.5 million to eCompanies, which was purch
ased in 1997 for US $149,000. The peer-to-peer filesharing software Napster laun
ches. ATG Stores launches to sell decorative items for the home online.
* 2000: The dot-com bust.
* 2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion.[3] Niche retail companies CSN
Stores and NetShops are founded with the concept of selling products through se
veral targeted domains, rather than a central portal.
* 2003: Amazon.com posts first yearly profit.
* 2007: Business.com acquired by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million.[4]
* 2009: Zappos.com acquired by Amazon.com for $928 million.[5] Retail Conver
gence, operator of private sale website RueLaLa.com, acquired by GSI Commerce fo
r $180 million, plus up to $170 million in earn-out payments based on performanc
e through 2012.[6]
* 2010: Groupon reportedly rejects a $6 billion offer from Google. Instead,
the group buying websites plans to go ahead with an IPO in mid-2011.[7]
* 2011: US eCommerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $197 billion
, an increase of 12 percent over 2010.[8] Quidsi.com, parent company of Diapers.
com, acquired by Amazon.com for $500 million in cash and plus $45 million in deb
t and other obligations.[9]