E-commerce will not be affected by the current barriers on payment and privacy fears, butit will be driven by convenience, speed and information capabilities, according to Felix Tan, a lecturer from the University of Auckland.

International Data Corporation's (IDC) latest findings in June this year indicate that nearly one billion people will use the Internet by 2005 worldwide, and that global sales via the web will increase to 5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2005 from 9 million dollars in 1997.

E-commerce would evolve beyond online order management and web order entry will be one small part of the total e-commerce solution, said Tan at the First International Conference on Electronic Business held Wednesday in Hong Kong.

Tan, a lecturer with the Department of Management Science and Information Systems of the University of Auckland, noted that fulfillment and after-sales service would be the key differentiations.

Companies should focus on their own core competencies and leverage the experiences of outside partners, he added.

He predicted that prepaid cards would emerge as an Internet payment mechanism. The key drivers of the trend include individual privacy fears and an unwillingness to use credit or debit card on the Internet.

Tan also said e-commerce in Asia still lag behind that in the United States as Asia's Internet penetration rate was only about one-third of the United States.

"Internet usage will no longer be U.S.-centric, and the Asia-Pacific region will lead," he said, adding that Chinese language will be used the most on the web by 2007, based on online population predictions.

(People?s Daily December 20, 2001)