Modern Means of Communication and Electronic Commerce

Connecting many computer networks and using common addressing system, the Internet has been growing rapidly since its creation in 1983, radio, telephone and cable television wires, and satellites being used to deliver Internet services. By the mid-1990s the Internet linked millions of computers throughout the world and it is sure to be most important commercial and popular means of communication nowadays. Having expanded considerably during the 1990s, the World Wide Web enables users easily to examine the internet sites and now it is likely to have become the leading informational service of the Internet.

Since the mid-1990s electronic commerce has become one of the most rapidly growing retail sectors involving the use of computer telecommunication networks for maintaining business relationships and selling information, services and commodities. Although e-commerce usually refers only to the trading of goods and services over the Internet, it actually includes broader economic activity such as business-to-consumer and business-to-business commerce as well as internal organizational transactions that support these activities.

A large part of e-commerce was transferred to the Internet after the first graphical “browser” software for the access to the World Wide Web had been introduced in 1993 and when the number of companies and individuals using “on-line” had greatly increased. In some fields new Internet retailers seem to have grown up overnight and begun successfully competing with traditional retailers. Most of recently established companies are known to include the electronic commerce in their business as well.

The further development of secure electronic transfer of sensitive information, such as credit card numbers and electronic funds transfer orders, is certainly to be essential to the continued growth of e-commerce. It is often necessary to ensure the encrypting of Web purchase forms, many individuals also usually encrypting their e-mail.

Among other innovations that have contributed to the growth of e-commerce are electronic directories and search systems for finding information on the Web; software agents that act autonomously to allocate goods and services; and special identifying services over the Internet. These intermediary services facilitate the sale of goods (actually delivering the goods in the case of information), the rendering of services such as banking, ticket reservations, and stock market transactions, and even the delivery of remote education and entertainment. Specialists consider electronic auction sales and markets to be other rapidly developing parts of e-commerce. The former offer a large variety of goods from computers and electronics to books, recordings, automobiles and real estate, while the latter allow a buyer to choose offers from many sellers.

Businesses often develop private intranets for sharing information and collaborating within the company, these networks usually being isolated from the surrounding Internet by special computer-security systems. Businesses also often rely on extranets which are extensions of a company’s intranet.

One should mention some more important benefits of e-commerce. Due to its development the role of geographic distance in forming business relationships is being reduced. Some traditional businesses are being replaced by their electronic equivalents or are being made entirely useless. Prices of commodity products are generally lower on the web and it results not only from lower costs of doing electronic business but also from the ease comparison shopping in cyberspace. A new form of collaboration known as a virtual company is flourishing now. This type of company is actually as a network of firms, each performing some of the processes needed to manufacture a product or deliver a service.

Task 2. Answer the following questions:

1. What were the original uses of Internet?

2. Why has the Internet spread so widely all over the world?

3. How can individuals and businesses use the Internet?

4. What does the electronic commerce include?

5. When did e-commerce appear?

6. What promoted the development of e-commerce?

7. What are the benefits of e-commerce in comparison with the traditional retail system?

Task 3. Fill in the gaps with appropriate words from the box. Some of the words you don’t need to use.

1. Users of e-commerce as well as entertainment industries are interested in _________ for ___________ joint sites in the Internet.

1. E-mail can ________ both texts and graphics to computer users.

2. The type of production is often influenced by the __________ conditions.

3. The development of the Internet system was followed by the ____________ of e-commerce.

4. Even people in ___________ places of the world can have the access to the computer net-work.

5. The development of programmes ensuring ____storage of information in computers is one of the important tasks of many programmers.

6. The __________ of networks and e-mail system allows a large company to use them for ____________ employees within the company.

7. Having_____________ upon a new web-browser called Mosaic, American engineers made it available to users in September 1993.

8. The latest _________ figures for these goods are much in line with market trends.

Task 4. Translate the sentences from Russian into English

1. Завдяки розвитку новітніх технологій для засобів зв’язку, послуги системи Інтернет можуть бути надані користувачам віддалених місць.

2. Завдяки всесвітній комп’ютерній мережі можливо отримати доступ до різноманітної інформації в системі Інтернет.

3. Комп’ютерна мережа, як відомо, використовується у різноманітних цілях, найважливішими з яких є електронна пошта і електронна торгівля.

4. Чим більше користувачів приєднуються до комп’ютерних мереж, тим швидше буде поширюватись електронна роздрібна торгівля.

5. Зв’язок за допомогою Інтернету має важливе значення як для індивідуальних користувачів, так і для організацій.

6. Усі типи комп’ютерних мереж повинні бути забезпечені системами безпеки для передачі секретної інформаії.