CHAPTER 2 E-Commerce: Mechanisms,

Infrastructures, and Tools

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE MECHANISMS: AN
OVERVIEW
In the previous chapter we did the following :
Studied the EC models, and
types of transactions
Both of these are enabled by different mechanisms. Examples of these
including databases, networks, security, software and server software,
operating systems, hardware (Web servers), and hosting services.
In this chapter we will discuss, electronic markets, shopping carts, e-
catalogs, and support services such as payment and order fulfillment.
In addition to of all of the above, there are different methods for
executing EC, such as buying at a fixed price or at an auction, and
each method has a different support mechanism. Finally, there are the
Web 2.0-based collaboration and communication mechanisms (e.g.,
Twitter) and special platforms such as the one used by Pinterest.
EC ACTIVITIES AND SUPPORT
MECHANISMS
We will start off by discussing the EC activities mechanism
connection.
CATEGORIES OF ECOMMERCE ACTIVITIES
Presence and discover, Finding information, comparing and analyzing

Trading, buying and selling, exchange

Communications, collaborate, learn

Entertainment

Improve Performance

Other Activities : Recruitment, customer service

LET US NOW MATCH THESE ACTIVITIES TO THE MECHANISMS THEY NEED
TO OPERATE OR FUNCTION..
THE ONLINE PURCHASING PROCESS
Customers buy goods online in different ways. They purchase from the
catalogue in the following ways

At Negotiated or Non Fixed Prices

At Fixed Prices
Discounted Prices or Dynamic Prices
THE PROCESS STARTS.
When the buyer logs onto the sellers website.

Registers if needed

Entering an online catalogue or the buyers My Account

section He might use a search option

The buyer will compare prices to see which one fits his/her
budgeta tool to compare price could be useful
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE BUYER IS
SATISFIED?
He makes the purchase
He will..
A. place the chosen item in a virtual shopping cart
B. He may then go move onto looking for other items to purchase.
Each chosen item is placed in the cast.

If he is not satisfied he abandons the sellers page.

WHEN THE ITEM SELECTION IS COMPLETE

He will go to the checkout page

He will choose the shipment option from a menu including the delivery
time if asked.

He then chooses the payment option. He can pay using paypal, credit
card, debit card, paytm, easypay, cash on delivery, etc.
After checking the accuracy of the date he submits the order.

The place where the buying and selling takes place is called an e-
market place.
E-MARKETPLACES OR ELECTRONIC
MARKETS
E markets play a central role in the digital economy facilitating
exchange of :
a. products
b. services
c. Information
d. Payment

E.marketplaces create economic value for

a. buyers
b. sellers
c. market intermediaries
d. society at large
SO WHAT IS A ELECTRONIC MARKETPLACE?

e-marketplace
An online market, usually B2B, in which buyers and sellers exchange
goods or services; the three types of e-marketplaces are private,
public, and consortia

Also called emarket, virtual market or marketspace

WHAT ARE THE FOUR FUNCTIONS OF MARKET
PLACE?
Enabling transactions by connecting buyers and sellers
Enabling the flow of relevant information
Providing services associated with market transactions
Providing auxiliary services such as legal, auditing, security.
WHAT IS MARKETSPACE AND WHAT
CHANGES HAS IT BROUGHT?
marketspace
A marketplace in which sellers and buyers exchange goods and services for money
(or for other goods and services), but do so electronically.
The emergence of marketspace especially internet enabled ones have changed the
several processes used in trading and supply chains.
In many cases, the changes have resulted in :

a. Lower search time for information and cost to buyers

b. reduced information misunderstanding between buyers and sellers
c. possible reduction in time gap between purchase and possession of the physical
products purchased online
d. ability of market participants to be in different locations while purchasing online.
E.. The ability to conduct transactions at any time from any place.

More : https://hbr.org/1994/11/managing-in-the-marketspace
COMPONENTS OF AND THE
PARTICIPANTS IN E-MARKETPLACES
The major components and players in a marketspace are:
Customers
Sellers
Products and services (marketspace vs. marketplace)
digital products
Goods that can be transformed to digital format and delivered over the Internet
Can you give an example?
Infrastructure
Do you remember these : electronic networks, database, hardware,
software, etc. ?
E-MARKETPLACES
front end
The portion of an e-sellers business processes through which customers interact,
including the sellers portal, electronic catalogs, a shopping cart, a search engine,
and a payment gateway
back end
The activities that support online order fulfillment, inventory management,
purchasing from suppliers, payment processing, packaging, and delivery
intermediary
A third party that operates between sellers and buyers. They match buyers and
sellers, might provide escrow services (its a party that holds the money on
behalf of transacting parties), helps buyers complete their transaction.
INTERMEDIARIES ALSO.
DISINTERMEDIATION AND REINTERMEDIATION
Intermediaries typically do three types of services :

Automated
a. provide relevant information about demand, supply, prices and treading
requirements
b. they match buyers and sellers
Manual
c. offer value added services such as transfer of products, escrow, payment
arrangements, consulting or assistance in finding a partner

disintermediation
Elimination of intermediaries between sellers and buyers. This is possible for the first
two process.
DISINTERMEDIATION IN.
Airline Industry

How can they do this?

E-MARKETPLACES
TYPES OF E-MARKETPLACES

Private
Private E. marketplaces are those that owned and operated by a single
company.

Can you think of examples?

Public
In many cases these are B2B markets. They are owned by a third party or
by a group of buying and selling companies (referred to as a consortium)
and they serve many sellers and buyers. They are also known as
exchanges (Eg. A stock exchange). They are open to the public and are
regulated by the government or the exchanges owners.
E-MARKETPLACES
TYPES OF E-MARKETPLACES

sell-side e-marketplace
A private e-marketplace in which one company sells either standard and/or
customized products to qualified companies. One to many selling.
Can you give and example of B2C and B2B one to many companies?

buy-side e-marketplace
A private e-marketplace in which one company makes purchases from invited
suppliers. Many to one purchasing.
Eg. How do you think hotels do this?
CUSTOMER SHOPPING MECHANISMS :
WEBSTORES, MALLS AND PORTALS
Several types of transactions exist among sellers, buyers and
emarkeplaces.
The major B2C mechanisms are :
Webstores and Internet malls
We will also discuss gateways to e-marketplaces which are called
portals
CUSTOMER SHOPPING MECHANISMS:
STOREFRONTS, MALLS, AND PORTALS
Webstore (storefront)
A single companys website where products or services are sold;
usually has an online shopping cart associated with it
Features of the webstores :
a. May target an industry, a location or a niche market
b. May belong to the manufacturer (Eg. GE Appliances or dell) or to
retailer (Amazon, Forever 21) or to a individual selling from home or
to another type of business (Eg. Etsy.com)

Companies that sell services (such as insurance) may refer to their

webstores as portals.
CUSTOMER SHOPPING MECHANISMS:
STOREFRONTS, MALLS, AND PORTALS
A webstore includes tools such as merchant software necessary to
conduct online sales.

The most common tools are an electronic catalogue, a search engine,

an electronic shopping cart for holding items until checkout, e-auction
facilities, a payment gateway, a shipment centre and customer
services (includes product and warranty information) and CRM.
CUSTOMER SHOPPING MECHANISMS:
STOREFRONTS, MALLS, AND PORTALS
Microsites :
A microsite is a webpage that acts as a supplement to a primary
website, but is external to it.
It expands on the content by adding editorial, commercial or
educational material.
CUSTOMER SHOPPING MECHANISMS:
STOREFRONTS, MALLS, AND PORTALS
e-mall (online mall) aka Electronic Malls
An online shopping center where many online stores are located. It is
similar to a mall which is located in the physical world.
The mall charges a commission from the sellers based on their sales
volume. Eg. EmallofMaine
Emall aggregated the products, services and providers in the state of
Maine in the US. It contained a directory of vacation services and
product categories and vendors in each category.
When the consumer indicates the category he or she is interested in,
the consumer is transferred to the independent webstore.
Yahoo.com also has electronic malls just like ebay.com
TYPES OF STORES AND MALLS
General stores/malls
Specialized stores/malls
Regional versus global stores
Pure-play versus click-and-mortar stores
CUSTOMER SHOPPING MECHANISMS:
STOREFRONTS, MALLS, AND PORTALS
Web (information) portal
A single point of access, through a Web browser, to critical business
information located inside and outside (via Internet) an organization
A portal is an information gateway that is used in e-marketplaces,
webstores and other types of EC.
TYPES OF PORTALS
Portals can be of different types. WE can differentiate between
them based on their
CONTENT, and
their COMMUNITY or AUDIENCE

Commercial (public) portals

Corporate portals
Publishing portals
Personal portals
mobile portal
A portal accessible via a mobile device.
voice portal
A portal accessed by telephone or cell phone.
PORTALS
Commercial (public) portals

Popular portals that offer content for everyone

These can be customized by the user, but these are largely intended
for broad audiences and they offer fairly routine content, some in real
time.

Example : Google, Yahoo, Msn

PORTALS
Corporate (private) portals
Organized access to internal corporate information
Also known as enterprise portals or enterprise information portals.
Example : Patient portals
The patients portals can be used by patients to view their personal
information. The Hospital or Healthcare unit uses this portal to share
information via the portal. The portal also allows the patient to
communicate between the caregiver and the patient.
PORTALS
Publishing portals
These portals are intended for community with specific interest and
involve relatively little customization of content.
They have extensive search capability and offer interactive
capabilities.
Eg. Tech web
PORTALS
Mobile portal
Accessible from the mobile phone.
Voice Portals
Website with audio interface. They can be accessed by a standard
phone Eg. AOLbyphone. It allows you to retrieve emails, news and
other content via telephone.
Knowledge Portals
Enable east access to knowledge by knowledge workers and facilitate
collaboration.
Communities Portals
Usually part of online communities - dedicated to some theme or
sponsored by a vendor Eg. Portals for gamers owned by a company
CUSTOMER SHOPPING MECHANISMS:
STOREFRONTS, MALLS, AND PORTALS
Intermediaries play an important role in commerce by .

. Providing VALUE ADDED activities and services to buyers and

sellers

In the physical world this is done typically by

a. Wholesalers
b. Retailers
In the online world this is done majorly by.

Brokers

Infomediaries
CUSTOMER SHOPPING MECHANISMS:
STOREFRONTS, MALLS, AND PORTALS
THE ROLES AND VALUE OF INTERMEDIARIES IN E-
MARKETPLACES
Brokers
A broker in Ecommerce is a person or company that facilitates transactions between
buyers and sellers. The following are the types of brokers :
- Trading : A company that aids in online trading. Eg. Ebay
- Organization of online malls : a company that organizes many online stores in
one place Eg. Yahoo or Alibaba
- Comparison agent : A company that helps consumers compare prices,
encourages user comments and customer service at different stores (Eg. Sky
scanner, Bizrate)
- Shopping Aids provider : A company that helps online shopping by providing
escrow, payments, shipping and security (Eg. PuntoMio Inc.)
- Matching Services : These services match entities such as jobs to applicants and
buyers to sellers (Eg. Super Jobs app)
CUSTOMER SHOPPING MECHANISMS:
STOREFRONTS, MALLS, AND PORTALS
THE ROLES AND VALUE OF INTERMEDIARIES IN E-
MARKETPLACES
e-distributor
An ecommerce intermediary that connects manufacturers with customers (buyers)
such as retailers (or resellers in the computer industry). E-distributors aggregate
product information from many manufacturers, sometimes thousands of them, in
the e-distributors catalogue.

infomediaries
Electronic intermediaries that provide and/or control information flow in
cyberspace, often aggregating information and selling it to others.
MERCHANT SOLUTIONS: ELECTRONIC CATALOGS,
SEARCH ENGINES, AND SHOPPING CARTS

electronic catalogs (e-catalogs)

The presentation of product information in an electronic form; the backbone of most e-
selling sites

Online Catalogs Versus Paper Catalogs

Earlier, businesses would send us a catalogue to go through their collection. Even today
there are businesses that send us their catalogue and you have to select the products
you want and send them a request by call or through post. Today, we have businesses
who share with us a CD or Pen drive with a catalogue of their products.
E.Catalogue consist of product database, directory and a presentation function. Tehy
are the backbone of many ecommerce websites.
The idea is to advertise and promote products and services. For the customers the
catalogs help to locate information on the products and services.
You can use a search engine to make your search easier.
MERCHANT SOLUTIONS: ELECTRONIC CATALOGS,
SEARCH ENGINES, AND SHOPPING CARTS

94 per cent of customers conduct online research

before making any purchase

61 per cent use a search engine when shopping online

the companys itself or on Google, Bing, etc.
MERCHANT SOLUTIONS: ELECTRONIC CATALOGS,
SEARCH ENGINES, AND SHOPPING CARTS

Types of EC Searches
Internet/Web Search when you are looking for
documents on the web
enterprise search is the practice of identifying
and enabling specific content across the
enterprise to be indexed, searched, and
displayed to authorized users (describes the
search for information within the files and
databases of the organization.)
Desktop search when you search for files on
your computer
MERCHANT SOLUTIONS: ELECTRONIC CATALOGS,
SEARCH ENGINES, AND SHOPPING CARTS

desktop search
Search tools that search the contents of a users or
organizations computer files, rather than searching
the Internet
The emphasis is on finding all the information that is
available on the users PC, including Web browser
histories, e-mail archives, and word-processed
documents, as well as in all internal files and
databases.
MERCHANT SOLUTIONS: ELECTRONIC CATALOGS,
SEARCH ENGINES, AND SHOPPING CARTS

search engine
A computer program that can access databases of Internet resources, search for
specific information or key words, and report the results.

What is the most used Search Engine in the world?

Google followed by Bing.com

Baidu is the primary search engine in China

There are a few types of Search : Voice Powered, Video and Mobile Search, Visual
Shopping Search Engine, Social Media Search Engine.
MERCHANT SOLUTIONS: ELECTRONIC CATALOGS,
SEARCH ENGINES, AND SHOPPING CARTS

electronic shopping cart

An order-processing technology that allows customers to accumulate
items they wish to buy while they continue to shop

OTHER MECHANISMS IN MERCHANT SOFTWARE

Other Shopping Engines
Product Configuration
AUCTIONS, BARTERING,
AND NEGOTIATING ONLINE
auction
A competitive process in which a seller solicits consecutive bids from
buyers (forward auctions) or a buyer solicits bids from sellers
(backward auctions); prices are determined dynamically by the bids.
Auctions can be B2C, B2B, C2C, G2B and G2C
Frequently auctioned items are : Rare coins, stamps and other
collectibles, vintage items, things that fail to be sold using normal
marketing conventions.

dynamic pricing
Prices that change based on supply and demand relationships at any
given time
AUCTIONS, BARTERING,
AND NEGOTIATING ONLINE
TRADITIONAL AUCTIONS VERSUS E-AUCTIONS
Traditional is still popular the volume for E.auctins is, however, increasing.
Person to person auctions are generally done online.
Traditional auctions last for a shorter duration minutes or even seconds for
each item sold. This rapid process gives potential buyers very little time to
make a decision they may end up not bidding.
In this case, sellers dont get the highest possible price and bidders may not get
what they really want or they pay too much for items.
In some cases, the bidders dont have enough time to examine the products.
Bidders may have difficulty learning about auctions and cannot compare what
is offered at each location.

Bidders are usually required to be physically present and many potential

bidders are excluded. Commission and the cost to run the auction are high as
well.
AUCTIONS, BARTERING,
AND NEGOTIATING ONLINE
TRADITIONAL AUCTIONS VERSUS E-AUCTIONS
E-auctions are low cost and have a wide array of support services and have
many more participating sellers and buyers.
Individual consumers and corporations can participate in this rapidly growing
auction.
They have been in existence since 1980s over LAN.
AUCTIONS, BARTERING,
AND NEGOTIATING ONLINE
TYPES OF AUCTIONS
One Buyer, One Seller
One can use NEGOTIATION, BARGAINING AND BARTERING
The resulting price will be determined by each partys bargaining power, supply and
demand in the items market and business environment factors.

One Seller, Many Potential Buyers

forward auction
An auction in which a seller entertains bids from multiple buyers; bidders increase
price sequentially. Because these (forward auction) is the most common, they are
simply called auctions.
There are two type in this English and Dutch. In Dutch the bidding price decreased as
the auction progresses.
AUCTIONS, BARTERING,
AND NEGOTIATING ONLINE
One Buyer, Many Potential Sellers

reverse auction (bidding or tendering system)

Auction in which the buyer places an item for bid (tender) on a request for quote
(RFQ) system, potential suppliers bid on the job, with the price reducing
sequentially, and the lowest bid wins; primarily a B2B or G2B mechanism

name-your-own-price model
Auction model in which a would-be buyer specifies the price (and other terms) he
or she is willing to pay to any willing and able seller; a C2B model that was
pioneered by Priceline.com.
AUCTIONS, BARTERING,
AND NEGOTIATING ONLINE
Many Sellers, Many Buyers

double auction
An auction in which multiple buyers and their bidding prices are matched with
multiple sellers and their asking prices, considering the quantities on both sides.
Stocks and commodities are sold this way.

penny auction
This is a new type of online forward auction. In this participants pay a small non
refundable fee each time thy place a bid. Then the time expires, the last participant
to have placed a bid wins the item and also pays the final bid price which is usally
lower than the retail price of this item.
AUCTIONS, BARTERING,
AND NEGOTIATING ONLINE
Limitations of E-Auctions
Minimal Security : may not be secure if done using an unencrypted environment.

Possibility of Fraud : Because the buyer cannot see and touch the items, the buyer
may receive :
- something different than she (or he) had in mind. (Eg : Next slide)
- Products may be defective.
The Buyer might refuse paying for the product.

Limited Participation : sometimes some auctions are open by invitation or to dealers

only. In such cases, the seller may not benefit as the number of buyers have reduced.
Some buyers may be disappointed if they are excluded.
AUCTIONS, BARTERING,
AND NEGOTIATING ONLINE
IMPACTS OF AUCTIONS

Auctions as a Social Mechanism to Determine a Price

Auctions as a Highly Visible Distribution Mechanism
Auctions as an EC Component in a Business Model
Auctions for Profit for Individuals

Spend time here to develop an understanding of how the above statements can create
an impact.
AUCTIONS, BARTERING,
AND NEGOTIATING ONLINE
ONLINE BARTERING

bartering
The exchange of goods and services
oldest form of trade
Primarily done today between two organisations - Difficult to match trading partners
Businesses and individuals can advertise using classified ads what they need and
what they offer in exchange but they still might not be able to find what they want.
Intermediaries may be helpful in this case, but will be expensive and slow.
 e-bartering (electronic bartering)
Bartering conducted online, usually in a bartering exchange
Can improve this process by attracting more partners.
Matching can be faster.
Items frequently bartered are office space, storage and factory space, unused
facilities, labor, banner ads, products.

bartering exchange
A marketplace in which an intermediary arranges barter transactions
can be extremely effective
eg u-exchange.com, swapace.com

How does the process work?

The company tells the bartering exchange what it wants to offer
The exchange then assesses the value of the companys products or services and
offers it certain points or bartering dollars.
The company can use these points to buy things it needs from a participating member
in the exchange.
ONLINE NEGOTIATING
Dynamic prices can be determined through negotiation.
Used for expensive or specialized products.
Popular also when the sales volume is large.
Negotiated prices result from interactions and bargaining among
sellers and buyers.

Negotiations also deal with terms such as payment method, timing and
credit.
Well known process in the offline world.
SOCIAL SOFTWARE TOOLS:
FROM BLOGS TO WIKIS TO TWITTER

social software
A software product that enables people to rendezvous, connect, and
collaborate through computer-mediated communication.
blog
A personal website that is open to the public to read and to interact
with; dedicated to specific topics or issues
vlog (or video blog)
A blog with video content
IDENTIFY
SOCIAL SOFTWARE TOOLS:
FROM BLOGS TO WIKIS TO TWITTER

Discussion topics for the day

Building Effective Blogs

Commercial Uses of Blogs
Potential Risks of Corporate Blogs
Microblogging

A form of blogging that allows users to write

messages (usually up to 140 characters) and
publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a
restricted group that can be chosen by the user;
these messages can be submitted by a variety of
means, including text messaging, instant
messaging, e-mail, MP3, or just on the Web
SOCIAL SOFTWARE TOOLS:
FROM BLOGS TO WIKIS TO TWITTER

Twitter
A free microblogging service that allows its users to send and read
other users updates

tweets
Text-based posts up to 140 characters in length posted to Twitter

The Essentials of Twitter for Business (discussion)

The Major Benefits of Twitter

COULD IT BE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING?
Communicating
Generating leads
Showing your brands personality
Researching trends
Seeking feedback
Providing customer service
SOCIAL SOFTWARE TOOLS:
FROM BLOGS TO WIKIS TO TWITTER

wiki (wikilog)
A blog that allows everyone to participate as a peer; anyone may
add, delete, or change content

Business Applications of Wikis

Could it be the following?
Up to date product information online
an addition to current website
contributes a healthy community around your business or organization
can share and collaborate
wikis can be used as an internal portal for all your employees can include
calendars
great marketing tool
SOCIAL SOFTWARE TOOLS:
FROM BLOGS TO WIKIS TO TWITTER

MECHANISM AIDS FOR WEB 2.0 TOOLS: TAGS, FOLKSONOMY,

MASHUPS, AND SOCIAL BOOKMARKS

tag
A nonhierarchical key word or term assigned to a piece of information (such as
an Internet bookmark, digital image, video clip, or any computer document)

folksonomy (collaborative tagging, social tagging)

The practice and method of collaboratively creating, classifying, and managing
tags to annotate and categorize content
SOCIAL SOFTWARE TOOLS:
FROM BLOGS TO WIKIS TO TWITTER
mashup
Combination of two or more websites into a single website that provides the content
of both sites (whole or partial) to deliver a novel product to consumers

social bookmarking
Web service for sharing Internet bookmarks; the sites are a popular way to store,
classify, share, and search links through the practice of folksonomy techniques on the
Internet and intranets
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL
NETWORKS
virtual community
A group of people with similar interests who interact with one another
using the Internet
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL
NETWORKS
CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADITIONAL ONLINE COMMUNITIES
AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION

Types of Communities
Associations (AMA)
Affinity portals (based on hobbies, vocation, political parties)
Ethnic communities
Gender communities
Catering to young people
Communities of practice (Eg. For Engineers or Social Media person)
Neighborhood communities (Eg. Nextdoor.com)
Social networks sites
Virtual worlds (COD)
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL
NETWORKS
Other Classifications of Virtual Communities
Public Versus Private Communities
Classification Categories

ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social network is a company that provides free webspace for its
community members to build profiles, interact, share, connect, create
and publish content.

Social network services or site are companies that host social

communities. Eg. Facebook, Linkedin.
There are over 100 million members on an average on a social media
website.
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

business-oriented social networks

A social network whose major interest is business topics and whose
members are professional people; such networks are used mostly for
creating contacts, providing requirements, and enlisting members
support for problem solving and knowledge sharing
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL
NETWORKS
Example of a Business-Oriented Social Network
Some Capabilities of Business-Oriented Networks
Business Models and Services Related to Social Networking
Social Network Analysis Software
Xanga
Digg

mobile social networking

Members converse and connect with one another using cell phones or other
mobile devices.
Mobile Community Activities
VIRTUAL WORLDS AS AN
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE MECHANISM
virtual world
A user-defined world in which people can interact, play, and do
business; the most publicized virtual world is Second Life
avatars
Animated computer characters that exhibit humanlike movements and
behaviors
VIRTUAL WORLDS AS AN
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE MECHANISM
BUSINESS ACTIVITIES AND VALUE IN VIRTUAL WORLDS
Collaboration
Research and Marketing (Pg. 82 Example)

Virtual Shopping (Covet App)

Trading Virtual Properties (Habbo.com sells more online furniture than IKEA
sells actual furniture)
THE FUTURE: WEB 3.0 AND WEB 4.0
Web 3.0
A term used to describe the future of the World Wide Web; it
consists of the creation of high-quality content and services
produced by gifted individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an
enabling platform
Semantic Web
An evolving extension of the Web in which Web content can be
expressed not only in natural language, but also in a form that can
be understood, interpreted, and used by intelligent computer
software agents, permitting them to find, share, and integrate
information more easily
(Eg. Traditional vs Modern party reminders)
THE FUTURE: WEB 3.0 AND WEB 4.0
Web 4.0
The Web generation after Web 3.0 that is still an unknown entity;
however, it is envisioned as being based on islands of intelligence and
as being ubiquitous

THE TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

McKinsey & Companys Prediction
Nicholas Carrs & Companys Prediction