New models of commercial interaction are developing as businesses and consumers participate in an electronic marketplace and reap the resultant benefits. The GII has the potential to revolutionize commerce in these and other areas by lowering costs dramatically and facilitating new types of commercial transactions. The Internet will revolutionize retail marketing. Commerce on the Internet could total tens of billions of dollars by the turn of the century. Electronic commerce refers generally to all forms of transactions relating to commercial activities, including both organizations and individuals, that are based upon the processing and transmission of digitized data, including text, sound, and visual images.
Electronic commerce is about doing business electronically.
It is based on the electronic processing and transmission of data, including text, sound, and video. It encompasses many diverse activities including electronic trading of goods and services, online delivery of digital content, electronic fund transfers, electronic share trading, electronic bills of lading, commercial auctions, collaborative design and engineering, online sourcing, public procurement, direct consumer marketing, and after-sales service. Electronic commerce is the carrying out of business activities that lead to an exchange of value across telecommunications networks. In addition, its contents have come to not only simple transactions of data concerning placing orders or order acceptance but also to general commercial acts such as publicity, advertisements, negotiations, contracts, and fund settlements.