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on mobile telephones. But the DoCoMo short messaging service is wildly popular
there as a way to communicate unobtrusively during long train commutes to work.
Altogether then, there are very different structural conditions surrounding
individual business-to-consumer e-commerce adoption in Asia than in the US. In
the US, many people both live and work far from convenient shopping. They have
convenient access to PCs both at home and at work, where they can browse
electronic catalogs, order using credit cards, and get a tax advantage for doing so.
The average education level is higher. Not surprisingly, many people order and pay
for everything from books and groceries to computer equipment electronically.
In rural Asia, the barriers to individual e-commerce adoption are great. In
Asian cities, many people both live and work close to convenient shopping. While
they may not have convenient access to a PC or to the Internet in either location,
they may be quite willing and able to use mobile devices for ordering goods and
services. They may
have a strong preference for paying in cash and would receive
no tax advantage from ordering electronically. A large proportion of the population
40 years of age or older is relatively less educated and also less exposed to
information technology. Not surprisingly, relatively few people purchase online, but
use of mobile electronic information services has great potential.
B2C e-Commerce Business Models
Successful Asian B2C e-commerce business models look very different than that of
Amazon.com. For example, Japan’s Internet bookstore e-Shopping!Books allows people
to pick up their online purchases at Seven-Eleven stores, and some 75% of them do
(The Economist, 2000). 7Dream.com—Seven-Eleven Japan’s own e-commerce
venture—involves Internet-based ordering from in-store multimedia terminals that are
capable of producing custom music MiniDiscs, printed digital photos, and concert
tickets (Williams, 2000).
As another example, the Bank of East Asia (BEA), a Hong Kong based leader in
consumer electronic banking, found it necessary to develop seven different
technology platforms—in addition to traditional ATMs—to address the structural
conditions found in Hong Kong and China (Hui, 2000).