THE VISIONS AND FORCES BEHIND E-COMMERCE

For computer scientist and information technologies, E-commerce I was a powerful vindication of a set of information technologies that had developed over a period of forty years, extending from the development of the early internet to the PC, to local area networks.

For economists, e-commerce raised the realistic prospect of a perfect Bertrand Market ; where price, cost, and quality information is equally distributed, a nearly infinite set of suppliers complete against one another, and customers have access to all relevant market information worldwide.

For merchants, the cost of searching for customers would also fall, reducing the need for wasteful advertising.

For real world entrepreneurs, their financial backers, and marketing professionals in the e-commerce I period, the idea of friction free commerce was far from their own visions.

Thus, the E-commerce I period was driven largely by vision of profiting from new technology, with the emphasis on quickly achieving very high market visibility.