Lesson 8	e-business today
Objective	History Relevance of ebusiness impact on Today

History and Relevance of e-business impact on Today

The history of e-business profoundly shapes its evolution, because each past milestone, whether technological, strategic, or cultural, creates the foundation for modern innovations and expectations. Understanding this history is not just academic, it reveals why current trends exist, what obstacles were overcome, and what recurring patterns might signal the future. Here’s a breakdown of how history has impacted e-business evolution:

Lessons from the Dot-Com Bubble (1995–2001)
Impact:
- Taught the danger of growth without profit.
- Refined business models like subscription and freemium to be sustainable.
- Highlighted the need for logistics, infrastructure, and customer service (e.g., why Amazon survived but Pets.com didn’t).
Modern Evolution:
- Startups today focus on unit economics, CAC vs. LTV, and customer retention, not just user growth.
- The rise of bootstrapped SaaS businesses is a direct reaction to the bubble era.
Infrastructure and Technology Foundations (2000–2010)
Impact:
- Standardization of SSL, payment gateways, and databases allowed secure transactions.
- Emergence of eBay, PayPal, Amazon showed scalability with trust.
Modern Evolution:
- Gave rise to cloud computing, Stripe/Shopify ecosystems, and API-first design.
- Encouraged modular platforms—no need to build everything from scratch.
Mobile and Social Commerce (2010–2020)
Impact:
- Smartphone adoption created anytime/anywhere commerce.
- Social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest introduced native shopping.
Modern Evolution:
- Mobile-first design is standard.
- Rise of creator-driven commerce, live selling, and AI-curated feeds.
AI and Personalization (2020–2025)
Impact:
- AI-driven search, recommendations, and chatbots transformed how users find and buy.
- E-business became contextual, predictive, and conversational.
Modern Evolution:
- Introduction of AI-native shopping assistants, voice search, and zero-click buying.
- Hyper-personalization now powers email marketing, retargeting, and even UI changes.
Crisis-Driven Adaptation (e.g., COVID-19)
Impact:
- Accelerated the shift from physical to digital for millions of businesses.
- Forced global supply chain rethinking and omnichannel logistics.
Modern Evolution:
- Businesses now build with resilience and redundancy in mind.
- Greater reliance on dropshipping, third-party fulfillment, and remote digital services.

💡 How History Drives Evolution in e-business

Historical Influence	Modern Impact
Dot-com boom and bust	Smarter growth, sustainable models
Early tech stack limitations	Modern SaaS, PaaS, and headless commerce
Rise of mobile and social	Omnichannel selling and instant payments
Trust issues in early web	Security standards, reviews, identity verification
First-wave personalization	AI-powered CX (customer experience)
Pandemic disruption	Agile models, global delivery networks, digital-first mindset

🔭 Summary Thought: The evolution of e-business is path-dependent, each historical shift becomes a stepping stone or a cautionary tale. Without the hard lessons of the past, the resilience, intelligence, and customer-centric nature of today’s e-business platforms wouldn't exist.

Purpose of an e-business Solution

e-business is a natural evolution of business in general. At all stages of business evolution, the introduction of technological advances has created the potential for change and increased geographical reach for business. As we discussed in an earlier lesson, eCommerce and Internet technologies have had much to do with the sudden explosion of e-business.
But what is the relevance of the history of e-business and e-commerce to the way e-business is conducted today?

The importance of Standards
Prior to the Internet, the other resources for e-business, including phone, telex, and fax, were based on what is called closed or proprietary standards. A closed standard means that the system or standard was defined by a single vendor and was incompatible with solutions from other vendors. This effectively "locked" the customer into that vendor's solution. There are a number of risks associated with closed standards.
The explosion of the Internet and its powerful influence on e-commerce and technology is largely because it is founded on open standards. An open standard allows for an unrestricted exchange between all entities, and provides a fertile ground for development on all levels. This is also one of the reasons for the resounding popularity of freeware or open source .

Disadvantages of Closed Standards in ebusiness Architecture

There are a number of disadvantages to using closed standards.
The risks of closed systems include:

Integration: Interfacing with other systems could prove difficult and expensive, and impose restrictions on the functionality of some systems.
Cost: Vendors can and do charge extremely high amounts for support and supply of accessories and related items that can only be supplied by that single vendor.
Complacency: Vendors may become complacent, and allow their levels of service to drop, knowing that their customers cannot easily move elsewhere. There is also the risk of the vendor going out of business or changing their product line, which could force customers to change their systems, possibly at a sudden and risky time for them.
Costs of change: If the system requirements change, it is difficult and expensive to move to another system.
Increased training costs: Staff training is more difficult and costly. It also is more costly to retain staff with uniqueskills.
Keeping ahead of technology: With rapid prototyping in technology, there is a risk that the gap between the latest cutting-edge technology in the open systems arena and the technology provided by a proprietary vendor will increase, or that standards will move in different directions altogether. The longer a company retains a closed standards system, the more difficult the transition to an open system becomes.

Official Standards Organizations

Most official computer standards are set by one of the following agencies:

ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
ITU (International Telecommunication Union)
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers)
ISO (International Standards Organization)
VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association)

These and other standards-setting organizations are described in more detail on the Resources page.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
The primary standards organization for the Internet is the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
The IETF is a community of researchers, developers, vendors, and operators who coordinate and monitor the development of the Internet.
This is done with the aid of a system involving Requests For Comment (RFC). Anyone can submit an RFC that introduces a potential new standard or modifies an existing one. If this RFC gains enough interest, it can be adopted as a new standard. Other Internet standards bodies include the IAB (Internet Architecture Board), IESG (Internet Engineering Steering Group), and the ISOC (Internet Society). The standards body concerned with the World Wide Web is known as the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).
The W3C is mainly concerned with the standards for HTTP and HTML, and related issues that are the standards used by the World Wide Web (which uses the Internet).

ecommerce Empire

The Origins of e-business

To predict future advancement of e-business, we should examine the past. As we have discussed, e-business has its roots in pre-Internet technologies dating back at least 30 years. The history of e-business underscores the notion that e-business is more than simply Web sites on the Internet: it is more accurately an evolution of technology, not a revolution. The events listed below have had consequences for both eCommerce and e-business, and could loosely describe the "pre-history" of e-business.

The world at your door
These and other advances in computing and telecommunications have made communication with customers across geographical boundaries easy and cost-effective. This is largely due to the growing presence of relatively standard customer-access devices in businesses, and most significantly, in homes around the world.
Key problems
Technological advancements may have opened up new horizons, but this revolution is not yet complete. The future of e-business has yet to resolve some key challenges. These challenges are described in the table below.

Key problems	Description
Legalities and regulations	If a US company sells goods to an Italian consumer, it is not clear whose consumer protection laws relate to the sale. What are the tax implications of the sale? Who should calculate these taxes?
International shipping	The logistics and cost of shipping of goods across international borders remains a complex issue. What trading restrictions might be applicable to the transaction?
Limited access to electronic trade or "eTrade"	PCs are still too complex and expensive for a large proportion of the world population, even within developed countries. How will the growth of interactive television and the emergence of PC-type devices with limited functionality open up world markets? How will this change in the next two to five years?

The legal and regulatory issues

The legal and regulatory issues relating to international trade are discussed in more detail later in the course. It is not the purpose of this course to predict when these problems will be resolved, but it is important for you to recognize that the environment of e-business is constantly changing, and that changes are taking place at an ever-faster rate.

Designing for flexibility The key learning here is that no e-business design and solution exists that will not require ongoing maintenance. If the design is to continue to meet its purpose from both a technical and regulatory perspective, upgrading and enhancement should be built into the process.
The standards for the Internet and e-business are part of a hotly debated argument as old as the Internet itself.
1. Should there be additional standards placed on e-business?
2. If so, who should control them?
3. Do standards provide more consumer protection?
4. Do they regulate the provenance, reliability, security, and privacy of digitally transferred information, or do they restrict development and curtail innovation in an area that has developed well on its own with few controls?

In the next lesson, we identify and differentiate between the various primary models of e-business.