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is that customers can also get property valuations online and at no charge via the
Bank’s partnership with www.house18.com.
House18 maintains a database of a
large number of residential properties in Hong Kong. The consumer can type in the
address of a property one wishes to buy and receive a valuation that the Bank will
accept as the basis for a mortgage loan. Various calculators enable the consumer
to estimate payments on mortgages of various
terms; it’s a simple step to applying
for the mortgage loan. House18 also supports a consumer’s “dream house search”
-identification of listed properties meeting various requirements. Other features
provide advice and directory listings in such matters
as decoration and removals.
All in all, BEA provides its customers with a complete real estate
package—
everything from finding the right property to closing the loan. This capability suits the
bank’s Hong Kong clientele, for whom real estate is a favorite investment vehicle.
In short, just as structural conditions in Asia promote very different patterns
of consumer e-commerce behavior than in the US, structural conditions in Asia
promote very different B2C business models. While cultural factors undoubtedly
play a role in these e-commerce activity patterns, structural factors also exert
independent influences on the observed behavior. The next section examines
structural conditions in the context of business-to-business electronic commerce.
BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS ELECTRONIC
COMMERCE
In the realm of business-to-business electronic commerce also, notable
structural differences exist between Asia and North America. They include the
disproportionate contribution of direct goods to final products (80% versus 60% in
the US), relatively inefficient and fragmented supply chains, smaller domestic
markets, and less developed infrastructure for electronic commerce (Dhawan et al., 2000).
Each of these structural differences has a significant influence on the patterns of B2B e-
commerce emerging in Asia.
B2B E-commerce Business Models—Asian e-Marketplaces
Consider e-markeplaces. Many of the more successful Asian B2B e-
marketplaces deal in direct goods (that is, primary raw materials), whereas
many