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within a specific area of service, such as logistics or financing, the e-marketplace
may have to forge multiple partnerships in order to obtain pan-Asian coverage, and
the required degree of functionality. By contrast, in the US, many e-marketplaces
can take the existence of a supportive infrastructure for granted and devote greater
attention to attracting buyers and sellers. The likely consequences for e-market-
place success are clear.
Other Structural Factors in B2B e-Commerce Activity
Another two important structural dimensions of the Asian business context are
language and family businesses. Billboards (advertising IS consulting services) in the
Hong Kong airport and elsewhere in Asia point out that by the year 2007, Chinese
will be the #1 language of the Web. But which Chinese? Although there are many
spoken Chinese dialects, there is only one written Chinese language—or, there was
only one, until Mao introduced a “simplified”
Chinese character set to increase
peasant literacy. By now, the two written languages have diverged to such an extent
that many overseas Chinese (e.g., Hong Kongers, Taiwanese) who have learned
the traditional written language frequently have to guess the meaning of simplified
Chinese. Some 20 years ago, Singapore began teaching simplified Chinese in
schools—as part of the country’s strategy for building relations with China. In the
process, something of a literacy gap has developed between younger and older
generations. Clearly, then, the language of an e-business Web site is a plausible
structural factor in its success. (i-Metal.com, the e-marketplace described earlier,
supports business in traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese and English.)
Another small, but interesting, structural factor related to language concerns the
structure of people’s names. Whereas western names are given first, middle, last,
Chinese names are given last, first middle, and Vietnamese immigration
documents require names to be reported last, middle, first. To add to the confusion, when
Hong Kong people have both Western and Chinese given names, the names are listed in
the following order: [western first name] [Chinese last name] [Chinese first names]. Not
surprisingly, customer service workers often have great difficulty parsing names—a
factor important in their ability to successfully use software developed in the West
(Soh et al., 2000).