Credit Card Debt Causes and Prevention

Rising costs have created a trap for many people. In order to make ends meet, many of us are faced to putting emergency bills (car repairs, home repairs, etc.) onto the credit card and then praying that we can keep up with the bills.A year or so ago, the government gave the credit card companies far more freedom regarding interest rates and payment schedules. They also changed bankruptcy laws making bankruptcy harder to file. Suddenly, credit cards with rates of 20% or higher become a common sight. A person who was paying $100 a month suddenly discovered that the monthly payment rose by $50 or $60. While the intention was to get the mounting national credit card debt down, it actually has backfired by making it harder for families to pay their bills on time. This has led to late fees, over the limit fees, and a soaring number of foreclosures.Debt consolidation programs are swamped with applicants. While many have turned to these programs to help get them out of debt, you can save money and do the work yourself. If you receive pre-approved credit card applications in the mail, save them! They can actually help you save a ton of money and interest charges.

1. Photocopy the credit card offer, including the interest rate and terms. Create a letter to your credit card company/companies stating that you are thinking of switching to their competition because they are offering a far more reasonable interest rate. Credit card companies do not want to lose your business. Nine times out of ten they will match or even offer a lower rate than the competition has offered.
2. If you can afford it, pay double the minimum payment. The minimum payment usually pays just enough to cover the interest and a little more that pays down the balance. Paying extra will pay your balance more quickly.
3. Pay off smaller balances first. It is common for a person to try to focus on their cards with larger balances first. Pay off the smaller ones. It will take less time and you will feel a sense of satisfaction when you have actually completed your goal. This will boost your confidence and make it easier to tackle the higher balances.
4. Cut up your cards so that you are not tempted to use them. Save one card for emergencies.
5. If you have equity in your home, look into paying off credit card debt with a refinance or fixed-rate home equity loan. Do not use a home equity line of credit, the rates will rise as the prime rises and suddenly you may find it impossible to keep up with your bills.

Mobile Payment System

Nowadays, electronic payment method is very famous in the world. There are many electronic payment methods such as electronic payment cards, smart cards, payment made at kiosk and so on. Besides that, mobile payment (mobile web payment or WAP billing) also develop in our country. Examples of mobile payment are SCAN’s mobile payment, Mobile Money (MM Wallet) and etc. These services are developing fast in the Europe and recently in Malaysia. Mobile payment is the collection of money from a consumer via a mobile device such as their mobile phone, Smart Phone, PDA or other such device. Mobile payment can be used to purchase any number of digital or hard goods, such as music, videos, ringtones, games, wallpapers and other digital goods. There are two primary models for mobile payments Premium SMS based transactional payments and Mobile web payments (WAP).
In Malaysia, a lot bank and mobile companies using this mobile payment system like Celcom, Maxis, Maybank, Hong Leong Bank and so on. This service is bringing a lot of convenience to consumers. Consumers can use it very easily in anywhere and anytime such as transfer money to your friends, pay bills, buy tickets, meal even taxi rides. Using cash for payment is a thing of the past. “Mobile payment is not only convenient but secure and rewarding as well. It is designed with nine levels of protection to enhance security and to minimize fraud.

Mobile Money will encourage more consumers to shop online. This will definitely be a great boon to the e-commerce industry in Malaysia. It will surely encourage more merchants to adopt online selling as an extra sales channel which complement perfectly with their offline sales channel to help them sell more of their goods and services.
What is the benefits that using the mobile payment? The benefits are can pay and authorize payment from wherever you are. No queuing, no runnings around from one place to the other to make payments or do you have to be physically present at a shop to make a purchase.
Mobile payment system is a concernment to our lives, and brings us to commercial transactions up to the next level. This service is bringing a lot a lot convenience to us.

Electronic currency

Electronic currency is an inexact term used to describe an electronic transaction that functions more like a cash exchange and less like a credit card charge. Electronic currency is also known as electronic cash, e-money, digital cash or digital currency. It is a technology that promises to bring this level of ease of use and anonymity to cashless transactions whether they happen on the internet or face-to-face. The Internet needs "global electronic currencies" that can serve as universal media of exchange, global units of account, and stable stores of value. The technological leap of electronic currency is that it breaks the dependent relationship between the buyer and seller.

By using E-payment it provide a range of benefits to the user such as increase the efficiency of the transaction. Banks now offer many services whereby a customer can transfer funds, purchase stocks, and offer a variety of other services without having to handle physical cash or checks. Customers do not have to wait in lines. This provides a lower-hassle environment. Debit cards and online bill payments allow immediate transfer of funds from an individual's personal account to a business's account without any actual paper transfer of money. This offers a great convenience to many people and businesses alike. Do business sell and buy in internet more flexibility and low cost.

There are also many significant disadvantages. These include fraud, failure of technology, possible tracking of individuals and loss of human interaction. Fraud over electronic currency has been a pressing issue in recent years. Hacking into bank accounts and illegal retrieval of banking records has led to a widespread invasion of privacy and has promoted identity theft. It happens when the consumer misplaces his or her private key so that the fraudster can withdraw their money from bank and without obtaining consent from the user. Electronic currency lack of records and identifies who spends or take money so that it may result the fraudster easier to process illegal activity over Internet such as laundering money and tax evasion.
The main focuses of electronic currency development are being able to use it through a wider range of hardware such as secured credit cards, linked bank accounts that would generally be used over an internet means, for exchange with a secure micro payment system such as in large corporations (PayPal)..Theoretical developments in the area of decentralized money are underway that may rival traditional, centralized money.

Application of 3rd Party Certification Programme

In computer programming, third party software component is a reusable software component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform. The third party software component market thrives because component oriented development improves the efficiency and quality of developing custom applications.

Nowadays, the world expects to gain access to voice and data services any time, anywhere, and on any device, and organizations are working hard to meet the rising demands of this “Any Era.” VeriSign infrastructure helps organizations to deliver in the Any Era, and realize the maximum profit. It is towards that goal that we focus our company, our technology, our services, and our people.
VeriSign Secure Site is use to ensure data confidentiality and integrity, all information transmitted over the Internet is encrypted using the 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol from Verisign Certificate Authority. SSL is a secure way of transferring information between two computers on the Internet using encryption. Strong end to end encryption is also adopted within the bank’s computer networks and resources.
The applicable SysTrust or WebTrust Seal of assurance symbolizes that this site has been examined by an independent accountant. Further, the Seal represents the practitioner’s report on management’s assertion that the entity’s business being relied upon is in conformity with the applicable Trust Services Principle and Criteria.
The Trust Services Principles and Criteria is an international set of principles and criteria for systems and electronic commerce developed and managed jointly by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. By demonstrating compliance with Trust Services criteria through an examination by an independent practitioner, entities earn the right to display the seal of assurance.
The Seal of assurance combines high standards for identified activities with the requirement for an independent verification/audit. Together they build trust and confidence among consumers and businesses conducting business over the Internet.
The entity has earned the right to display the Seal of assurance with respect to the Trust Service Principle(s) of On-line Privacy and security. Maybank2u.com is WebTrust certified. This certifies our compliance with leading international security standards and Best Practices, as well as our commitment to maintaining a secure environment. WebTrust is an independent corporation that monitors and tests our facilities to assure that we maintain the highest and most current standards in Internet information security and exchange.
VeriSign is the leading Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Authority enabling secure e-commerce, communications, and interactions for Web sites, intranets, and extranets. Choose the most trusted mark on the Internet and enable the strongest SSL encryption available to every site visitor.

This is the sample of third party certification letter.
http://www.bis.doc.gov/snap/3rdpartycertificationletter.htm

Threat of Online Security

21st century, the entire world is beginning technology and more technology. The technology becoming advanced and more advanced therefore all people cannot lives with the technology. Just imagine in 100 population can be said that all people have their own personal computer such as laptop, smart phone or desktop. The technology getting more advanced and advanced do you think that our data security are safety or else. Definitely NO. This is because the technology is created by the human; therefore the human can hacked or cracked it. The threats can be divided into 3 basic categories. There are malicious programs or "malware” such as viruses, trojans horse, worms, spyware, spambots and so on; online predators; and online vices such as cybersex, internet sex or net sex.
Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The term is a portmanteau of the words malicious and software. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. Many normal computer users are however still unfamiliar with the term, and most never use it. Instead, "computer virus" is incorrectly used in common parlance and even in the media to describe all kinds of malware, though not all malware are viruses.
An online predator is an Internet user who exploits vulnerable people, usually for sexual or financial purposes. Most internet sex offenders are young adults who target people who are usually younger in age. Adolescents and the elderly are most often the victims of online predators. Some experts recommend not providing personally identifiable information such as a name, password, phone number, address or credit card and so on. Their purpose is to gain beneficial from the users. Prepubescent children are not often targeted.
Cybersex, internet sex or net sex is a virtual sex encounter in which two or more persons connected remotely via a computer network send one another sexually explicit messages describing a sexual experience. It is a form of role-playing in which the participants pretend they are having actual sexual relations. In the other ways, this fantasy sex is accomplished by the participants describing their actions and responding to their chat partners in a mostly written form designed to stimulate their own sexual feelings and fantasies. Cybersex may also be accomplished through the use of avatars in a multiuser software environment.

Security Tips
· Do not open any email attachment from any unknown and unauthenticated source.
· Never reply to the emails whose identity you don't know.
· Protect your computer by installing up-to-dated antivirus and antispyware programs and regularly scan your computer with them.
· Implement a hardware or software firewall on your computer.
· Never send your user names, bank account information, passwords and credit card details to someone via emails.
· Before doing online shopping through a website ensure the validity and repute of that website.
· While doing online shopping make sure that your browser is displaying a lock sign at the bottom right column of your browser.
· Never open any web link that you receive through the web messengers from unknown users.
· If you are administering a computer network then make sure that you are using very strong passwords at the computer server.
· Monitor the online activities of your network users.
· Block the suspicious websites, web applications, P2P sites and other files sharing websites.
· Never download software or games from the entrusted websites.
· In case of any online credit card fraud event, immediately contact your credit card issuing company or bank and report the abuse.
These tips will certainly help you to have safe browsing, chatting and secure online shopping experience.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data???

In this digital century, many things we use to work through people, paper or phone had slowly become obsolete. Example buying goods, deposit of money in bank, pay bills and etc. Since, there is advancement of technology and e-commerce. Or sometime is the company’s policy to do online. So sometime there is a necessary for us to disclose our personal data or financial data online such as passwords, credit card number, bank account number and etc. But how are you going to know that your personal and financial data have not misuse by other people because with spyware, viruses, hackers, etc, it is very easy for anyone to become the victim of online fraud or identity theft.
So there is a need for us to know the way to safeguard our personal and financial online. There are some ways for us to use when we are online in order to protect the financial and personal data:
1. Install a firewall, anti-virus software and other security. These software programs are designed to allow good people and keep bad people out. Since, there is an increasing common practice is the use of malicious code to acquired personal data needed to commit identity theft.
2. Make sure the security software is up-to-date. Although many people had security software but they did not update regularly. This is a big mistake since the malicious code is always changing. If the security software did not up-to-date, then might be a change that the software can’t detect the mistake.
3. Be suspicious on the mystery attachments. Don’t open to mystery attachment or click on a link from financial institution, internet services provided or other organization asking you to provide personal information online. Because, first, attachments might contain virus. Second, good reputable firm never ask for personal information in this manner.
4. Ensure the URL is HTTPS and not HTTP. Although for the words we see HTTPS and HTTP difference just a S. But actually the S makes a large difference. This mean that the communication between and the website server is secure and encrypted. So if someone tries to read the data across the internet they would not be understand because the data was encrypted. This is one of the best for those who buying online. Since the need to disclose the personal and financial data.
5. Don’t cut and paste links or click the link in the e-mail. Because like this the change the link will link a fake website is higher. Generally it is safer to log into a particular website by typing out the web address.
6. Avoid saving financial info at the shopping website. Because now a day shopping website will give you a choice to save the credit card info in the website so that next time you visit the website no need to retype the info. But it is not safe since there might be a chance someone hacks in the shopping website database.
7. Keep your password unique. Don’t ever use your birthday as your password since it is easy to other to know it or hack in. Try to use some symbol or number beside alphabet. It will become harder for hacker to figures it out.
8. Only go to trusted computer shop for fixing computer. This is true, as we can see in the case of Edison Chan a Hong Kong singer and movie star in the photo scandal. Since, the computer personal have the chance to assess all the financial and personal info that we have save in computer.

Last but no lease, be common sense a bit and smart in dealing with personal and financial data online.

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

Phishing is a fraudulent attempt which acquires sensitive information such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers, etc. It is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging. The e-mail directs the user to enter details at a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as account usernames and passwords. Phishing can be called a synonym to actual fishing. Scammer throws in a bait by sending you an email, pretending to be a representative of the company he tries to get sensitive information. If you eat the bait, scammer has obtained your accounts username and password or credit card information, whatever you have sent him.

PayPal, eBay and online banks are common targets. Typically phishing emails point recipients to a bogus website which looks like the real PayPal or eBay site, but is designed to steal usernames and passwords. Once hackers have stolen login details they can use the information to commit crimes such as identity fraud, leaving victims with a financial burden.

PayPal scam e-mails normally involve a link on which the user must click. The link takes you to a server where you have to supply sensitive and private information including credit card numbers, your PayPal account number, pin numbers and passwords. The scam claims your account information needs to be updated because they found incompatible information during a billing information check. The real PayPal never sends such emails. eBay phishing scams have the same purpose and characteristics as PayPal phishing scams.

Day after day, computer users are bombarded with an increasing number of phishing-based emails and attacks. However, there are ways to prevent them. User should be suspicious of any email with urgent request for financial, account, or email information. Phishers have been known to include upsetting or enticing (but false) statements in their e-mails to get people to reach immediately, a practice known as social engineering. The email typically asks for usernames and passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers or other personal information.

Users should not click on any links that you're unsure of. Many times, phishers will include a link leading to a fake website, possibly with a similar name of the website that gives them full access to your sensitive information. User should ensure that they are on a secure connection to a web server when submitting personal information across the Internet. A secure Web server designation can be found by checking the beginning of the Web address in your browser’s address bar. The address should begin “https://” rather than http://.
User should install antivirus and firewall software and ensure that the program is up to date using their Update features. An antivirus program is a program that prevents and removes viruses. A firewall is used to prevent unauthorized access from a remote computer system. Antivirus and firewall software are very important because there are millions of existing viruses and new ones created everyday.

The history and evolution of E-commerce

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The meaning of electronic commerce has changed over the last 30 years. Originally, electronic commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of electronic commerce. From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.

The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.

The Internet has changed the way consumers and businesses conduct transactions. Because the web is such a dynamic medium, first generation web sites have quickly given way to dynamic and interactive e-commerce sites that incorporate the 7 C's of next generation web sites.
When e-commerce platforms first arrived, they were focused primarily on handling transactions and managing catalogs for B2C sites. Of course, businesses are looking for much more than that today. They need software solutions that support a broader range of e-business requirements.

Vendors are responding by evolving their products into solutions capable of handling a greater portion of the commerce life cycle. The solutions include capabilities for back-end integration, personalization, content management and supplier enablement. For solution providers, this evolution is good news. Better architectures mean more flexibility and integration capabilities, while increased functionality means that you can do more with a single product.

Discuss how E-commerce can reduce cycle time,improve employees' empowerment and facilitate customer support

What does Google , Amazon.com , eBay Earn???Or what is their Revenue Model???

Revenue Model is defined as the description of how the company or an EC project can earn revenue or besides that it also can be said as revenue from Internet specific, innovative business models. There are major model of revenue model for EC, Sales, Transaction fees, Subscription fees, Advertising fees, Affiliate fees and other revenue source.
Sales under the Revenue model for EC are selling of goods or services over the internet or their website. Example purchase of DELL computer through internet
Transaction fees for EC model is the fees received on the transaction made. Example each time you download a song or a wallpaper u needs to pay a certain fees on the thing you have download.
Subscription fees are the fixed amount paid pay by the subscriber on a frequent basic for using the services or information. An example would be subscription fees paid by Utar to Science Direct, Ebscohost, and Emerald for assessing on the journal.
Advertising fees is the fees paid by a company on the banner that placed on a particular website for a certain period or space.
An affiliate fee is the fees paid by companies for the purpose of allowing customer to access to the other website.
Other revenue source is the revenue other than those that has been stated above that earn through EC.

For Google the Revenue model is mainly from advertising fees. Google offers targeted advertising solutions and global Internet search solutions. The principal products and services include: Google AdWords and Google AdSense.Google AdWords is designed to allow the advertisers to present advertisements to people at instant when people are looking for information related to what the advertiser has to offer. When a user searches information Google's search engine, advertisements for relevant words are shown as "sponsored link" on the right hand side of the screen. Google AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable advertisements on their sites. Revenue is generated on a per-click or per-thousand-ads-displayed basis and the ads are administered by Google.

Amazonis one of the first major companies that sell goods by using Internet. Its steadily branched into retail sales of music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, software, consumer electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items, toys & games, baby products, apparel, sporting goods, gourmet food, jewelry, watches, health and personal-care items, beauty products, musical instruments, industrial & scientific supplies, groceries, and more. Besides that it also provides global shipping to certain countries for some of its products. Thus, from here we can know that the Revenue model for Amazon.com is sales.

is the world's largest online marketplace where practically everyone can sell practically anything at any time. It is an online auction and shopping Web site in which people and businesses buying and selling goods and services worldwide. There are two types’ of fees that eBay charge on the sellers which are Insertion Fees and Final Value Fees. Insertion fees is more towards subscription fees where the seller would have to pay certain fixed fees according to the product that listed because it is charges on the items for sale. Final Value Fees is final payment fees if the product is sold. The value that needed to pay is according to the nearest price sold. This kind of fees is more towards to transaction fees.

As for comparison purpose these 3 EC website or companies use mainly in different kind of Revenue model. Google is mainly on Advertising fees, Amazon.com is mainly on Sales and eBay is mainly on Transaction fees and subscription fees.

E-commerce....successful~

The practice of electronic commerce (e-commerce) existed since 1965 when consumers were able to withdraw money from Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and make purchases using point of sale terminals and credit cards. This was followed by systems that crossed organizational boundaries and enable organizations to exchange information and conduct business electronically. Such systems were commonly known as inter organizational systems.
Until the wide spread deployment of Internet-based technologies in the early 1990s, enterprises that conducted e-commerce used almost exclusively a closed and standardized form of computer-to-computer communication known as “Electronic Data Interchange” (EDI). In fact, the term “electronic commerce” was virtually synonymous with “EDI”. E-commerce as such, however, has come to attract the interest of many following the commercialization of the Internet and especially the advancement of the World Wide Web and its business applications. Hence, in the evolution of e-commerce, it is possible to differentiate between traditional e-commerce and Internet based e-commerce.
E-commerce today means many things to different people. There exists a wide variety of e-commerce definitions and conceptualizations covering a plethora of issues, applications, and business models. Some view ecommerce as “doing business electronically”. Such definition tends to be very generic and specify neither the network archetypes nor the business activities to be conducted electronically.
Other of the definitions of e-commerce is “the sharing of business information, maintaining business relationships and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks”.

There are lots of examples that using e-commerce method to do their business globalization such as Amazon.com, eBay and so on. One of the successful examples of e-commerce is eBay. eBay was founded in Pierre Omidyar's San Jose living room back in September 1995. It was from the start meant to be a marketplace for the sale of goods and services for individuals.
eBay has built an online person-to-person trading community on the Internet, using the World Wide Web. Buyers and sellers are brought together in a manner where sellers are permitted to list items for sale, buyers to bid on items of interest and all eBay users to browse through listed items in a fully automated way.
eBay has both streamlined and globalized traditional person-to-person trading, which has traditionally been conducted through such forms as garage sales, collectibles shows, flea markets and more, with their web interface. This facilitates easy exploration for buyers and enables the sellers to immediately list an item for sale within minutes of registering.

Why are eBay so famous among the internet? The causes that lead eBay to be so successful is allows people to often times connect with some very fond and special early childhood memories. It could be anything from collecting baseball cards to toy soldiers to Barbie dolls to doll houses and so forth. It allows people to make that connection and relive a lot of those very vivid and very fond memories that they were young. Besides that, the buyers also can buy the goods or anything which is limited edition or antique. It allows people to collect the tiptop antique or anything else.

Another factor that may consider is that people really enjoy the experience of the shopping bazaar. They enjoy the hunt. They enjoy looking around for merchandise. The other component is that I believe they really enjoy the competition of the bidding process. eBay also allows buyer and seller bargain, in some way, shape, or form, likes to haggle a little bit over the price. The other thing is that as it has grown, it has become a very practical place to buy and sell collectibles or commodities.
If you have a vivid thing and anything you think that valuable, people are interesting you can log in to http://www.ebay.com/ to auction the thing that you want to sell it.

E-commerce....failed~

The development of e-commerce has boomed in the past few years with the changing trends of globalization and the advancement of modern technology. E-commerce builds on traditional commerce by adding the flexibility offered by computer networks and the availability of the Internet. Certain e-commerce applications, such as buying and selling stock on the Internet in order to conduct a business, are growing rapidly. . However, not all companies are succeeded in this business world handles by the advanced technology.
Companies either became bankrupt or failed to achieve success due to their unimpressive and non-persuaded marketing capacity as well as other weaknesses. Companies usually fail to achieve complete success when they are not able to face the challenges in market via Internet.

Pets.com is one among many other online retailers that failed as a business-to-consumer e-commerce entity. Pets.com was a San Francisco-based company that sold pet accessories and supplies direct to consumers over the World Wide Web. In beginning of 1999, Pets.com appeared to be on a road to success in spite of the rising competition in the online pet market. However, the success never brought profits for the online firm and Pets.com decided to close its doors while it still had a positive net worth in November, 2000 just two years after its launch.

One factor that contributed to Pets.com’s failure was that it was in a very competitive arena, the pet supply sector. Pets.com was competing with many brick-and-mortar pet supply businesses, for example, Petsmart.com had brand recognition on which to build its site. Pets.com had the advantage of owning the most valuable domain name in the online pet market, but its competitors had other advantages. Unfortunately, this advantage was not used to its full potential and Petsmart.com continued to lead Pets.com in online traffic and revenues.

Another factor that contributed to the failure of Pets.com was the company did not make wise financial decisions. In order for Pets.com to get customers to buy online instead of going to their local supermarket, it had to undercharge their shipping costs. Another financial problem was Pets.com was operated on negative gross margins, and in the end, the company was no longer able to raise capital to keep the business afloat. They had to sell products below cost in order to compete, and they failed to recover from their losses. Another financial problem was that Pets.com made significant investments in its infrastructure, such as warehouses, without really having the money to undertake these investments. As a result, the company needed a critical mass of customers to simply break even.

The best factor that contributed to the failure of Pets.com was the fact that the company failed to give its prospective customers a good reason for its existence and to satisfy a need. Business model of Pets.com was not unique and did not offer consumers anything different from the other online pet supplies retailers. Pets.com along with others in the online pet market chose to enter a market that was not exactly very attractive for e-commerce. They just offered products that were already readily available to consumers. Most of the consumers can get their pet supplies at the same place they get their groceries Shopping online for these kinds of products was not any more convenient for them than shopping at an actual retail store which they can get pet supplies within short time rather than buy pet supplies online and wait for a couple of days to receive it. This makes an argument that there is no point to shop online.

Pets.com competed in the highly competitive pet supplies sector, and at the same, managed its finances poorly. These are those factors that cause failure to the company. The most obvious factor that affected Pets.com was they were unable to attract enough online customers to reach their goals. Consumers could easily go to their local grocery store and get the pet supplies they needed. There was no reason for consumers to shop at Pets.com.

Sit Looi~

My name is Wong Sit Looi. Originating from Perak, I was born in 1986 in my lovely city, Sitiawan. This year, I am twenty two years old and I am the eldest in the family, with a younger brother. Being the eldest child, it is my responsibility to take care of my younger brother and also be there for him when he needs me, whilst playing the role of an obedient daughter. I have a very intimate relationship with my family members, especially with my father, who will always be there whenever I need someone to lean on.

I am currently pursuing a bachelor degree, majoring in accounting in the University of Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), located in Sungai Long. Before joining UTAR, I had first completed my foundation studies in Sunway University College, Petaling Jaya in 2004.

My friends always describe me as a person who is friendly, caring and funny. I partially agree with their view, as I do not see myself as someone who is funny, just maybe they are sometimes entertained by the way that I act. In addition, I personally believe that I am a person who is easily influenced by others, especially if the matters concerning those who are close to me. I am not the kind of person who is strong in my studies, so, whenever I think of my future, I tend to feel worried and pressured to work harder. Despite being weak in my studies, I am truly thankful because I have friends who are willing to help me and guide me in my studies, and not look down on me. For leisure, I enjoy surfing the internet, listening to music, shopping and watching movies.

Websites which I visit the most are http://www.friendster.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/ because it connects me with all of my friends around the world. This important for me, as I appreciate the relationship that I have between my friends and I. Other frequently visited websites includes http://www.yahoo.com/ and http://www.google.com/, which are my main sources for information searching. In addition, through http://www.youtube.com/ , I can watch a lot of movies and MTVs online.

Carmen~K'Meng

Sometimes it is hard to introduce yourself because you know yourself so well that you don’t know where to start from. I’m asked to do so, therefore here it goes the brief description about me.

I’m a very ordinary girl that came from a big city called Kuala Lumpur, a girl that likes to laugh a lot, a happy go lucky person which enjoy every moment when hanging around and joking around with friends. That’s me…. Tham Kar Meng but friends around me used to call me as Carmen which I prefer to be called in that way. I’m taking my degree course in UTAR in Bandar Sg Long.

There are many things that I like to do, to see, and to experience. Besides all these, I like to write therefore I have my own blog and diary. It helps me to record down every single moment of my life no matter it is a sad day or a happy day. Hang out with friends is one of my favourite activities. I used to hang out with a gang of friends which previously we are in the same college. We usually meet up at night where everybody is free to gather for drinks or movies. Traveling will be one of the things that I want to do the most. I wish that I can travel to others country to have a look at the different culture in every different places. Italy is my first target, once I have enough saving my money there will be the first place that I will head towards.

Nowadays, everyone will access to internet when they have nothing to do. Internet allowed people to connect with others and outside world without stepping out. With internet we can do a lot of activities and update ourselves with the latest news. There are many websites that I used to access. Let me share some of the websites that I normally will access. The first one will be http://www.youtube.com/, youtube is one of the free broadcasting website that allowed people to watch free video clips. There are many types of video such as music video clip, funny show that can cause you to laugh for the whole day, daily up to date drama series no matter it is from US, UK, Taiwan, Hong Kong or any other country. Secondly, http://www.viwawa.com/, it is a website that allows people to play online games. I used to access when I was bored or when friends invited to play together. I have to control myself in order not to let myself get addicted to it, as if we play too often within a period may get addicted easily. http://www.facebook.com/, it is a tool of communication that allows people to stay contact and make new friends. You can upload pictures of yourself and create an album for the pictures that you have uploaded. Websites that I access often for movies will be http://www.cinemaonline.com.my/, this website allowed me to update for the latest released movies, time and cinema that are available for the movie that I want. Well, basically there is one more website that I access quite often which is http://www.blogspot.com/, it is a website that allowed me to blog.

Internet activities that cannot be left out by a student will be searching for information for assignments. When we are in the peak period of the semester, I will be sitting whole day in front of the computer searching for information that can help me to complete my assignments. Besides that, internet activities that usually will do when I am online will be chatting by using msn. Once I turn on my computer, surely I will online my msn in order to stay contact with friends that are in oversea and chit chatting with friends. Blogging will be one of the internet activities too that I did often when I am online. On the other hand, I like to broadcast for the latest new songs from some of the websites that allowed listening for free. Friends introduced me a website that can read novel for free, started from that day, I used to read novel in the internet and this created me a great interest on reading online novel.

This is a brief introduction of me, a very simple girl that lives happily and satisfy with what she has.

Sing Hui~

Hello, Tan Sing Hui is my name but friends always called me as Ah Hui. I’m not a girl not yet a women guess how old am I? Well I’m 21 and came from a small rural state which is Sungai Petani, Kedah. The distance from my hometown to Kuala Lumpur which I’m studying is about 380km, it takes me about six hours to reach my small little hometown. I’m the second elder in my family, where my family is consider a big family because I have five siblings including three sisters and one brother. Therefore my family member contains seven people.

I’m a student of UTAR that taking Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting course. Once I entered in to UTAR, I get to know my classmate and all of them are very nice and friendly. Thus, we can mix around very well in a very short period of time. We have created a name for our tutorial group that is Sampat Group it is simply because we are in tutorial group eight.

We have just started our year three first semester, and there are heap of assignments waiting for us. Hence, we do not really have much time to hang out or have any activities so far, unless it is weekend as our class is five days per week.

Most of the time I will go for marketing in order for me to get some fresh vegetable for the one whole week. I have just moved to a new unit and I started to cook by myself so that I can save my pocket money. Food prices are keep on increasing and never reduce, I have no choice but to cook myself. It is cheaper compare to having meals outside.

I’m a quite active person which I like to hang around with friends. Sometimes when I’m bored I will ask friends along to go for karaoke, watch movies or go for drinks. Our classmate are as active as me, therefore we always plan a lot of activities to be conducted once we are free, such as after hand up our assignments or after mid term exam. That will be the time for us to have a short break to enjoy ourselves. Activities that we usually will do will be gathering and the whole class will go for movies. Besides that, there is a trend in our class where there will be birthday celebration for all the babies in our group, every month there will be a day to celebrate birthday for that particular month babies.

I’m glad that I have entered this tutorial group and have such a large gang or friends that are so friendly and nice. I enjoy my studying in this class and the moment that we all gather together.

Jia Yi ~

Hey, I'm Teoh Jia Yi. From my appearance, I don't really look like a girl which is 20 years old. Parit Buntar, my lovely hometown which is located in Perak, it is the most wonderful place in this world for me. I don’t really like sport, but I really do love singing. Before I came to UTAR in Sg Long to further my degree course I used to have my favourite food, laksa at least once in a week. However, since I started my life in Sg Long no more laksa for me to eat that often because I can’t find any laksa that is taste alike in my hometown which I prefer the most.

I’m not an extraordinary girl, therefore things that normally a girl likes to do I would love to do as well. I love to spend time on surfing the internet, reading, go for karaoke, watch movies, and shopping. This probably can explain why my pocket money will become zero before the end of the month.

http://www.google.com/ and http://www.yahoo.com/ are my most visit websites that I used to browse for information regarding to anything that I’m not sure about. As I said I love reading, therefore http://www.thestar.com.my/ and http://www.chinapress.com.my/ will be the website that for me to read and update myself with the current issues happened around the world no matter it is in Malaysia or outside of Malaysia. For entertainment purposes I love to visit http://www.youtube.com/ for some of the short video.

Chatting with friends through msn is one of my internet activities, it is quite common that people nowadays to online chatting with friends and check mail. Besides that, online purchasing is also my favourite activities on internet, I used to purchase clothes and some of the second hand stuff that I am interested in. The existence of internet allowed me to search for any information that I needed. It helps me to update with what are happening around the whole world through online newspapers. And now, here comes the extra activities which is I need to access to the internet in order to complete my assignment by updating my blog.