Page 314 - Electronic Commerce

Social Networking, Mobile Commerce, and Online Auctions

The use of mobile devices for banking and financial services (such as stockbrokers) is
growing. The convenience of banking or executing stock trades from anywhere is very
appealing to many consumers. In fact, basic apps are so easy to create that trade
associations can provide apps to convention-goers that include maps of the convention
floor and program agendas.
A growing number of hospitals and clinics are providing apps that give doctors
access to detailed information needed for treating patients. For example, cardiologists
can read electrocardiograms (EKGs) on their mobile devices at home, saving them time
and often a trip to the hospital for an emergency consult. Other hospitals are creating 289
equally creative apps. For example, diabetic patients can track food intake, insulin
injections, blood sugar readings, and their level of physical activities on their phones.
Doctors treating these patients can access the data using their own mobile devices and
can better help patients manage their diabetes.
Virtually all mobile devices have global positioning satellite (GPS) service capabilities,
which means that apps can combine the phone user’s location with the availability of
retail stores and services to create mobile business opportunities much like the location-
based social networks you learned about earlier in this chapter. For example, some apps
can direct the user to specific business locations (such as restaurants, movie theaters, or
auto repair facilities) based on the user’s current location.

Mobile Payment Apps
Since 2004, NTT DoCoMo has been selling mobile phones, called mobile wallets (osaifu-
ketai, in Japanese), that function as credit cards. Although the individual applications on
DoCoMo phones are not overwhelming (for example, one application lets you use a mobile
phone to pay for a vending machine purchase in Japan), their combined capabilities
generate a significant amount of business. Other countries that have a tradition of using
cash for retail transactions have seen significant adoptions of mobile phone apps that allow
them to be used to make payments. Very few people have credit cards in these countries
and the convenience of using a mobile phone for payments has been very attractive.
In the United States, where the use of credit cards is widespread, the use of mobile
device payment apps has not become popular. However, in 2011, a number of companies
began to offer retail store technologies that allow the use of smartphones as payment
devices. American Express, Visa, and MasterCard have all made phone readers available
to retailers. Google Wallet for Android phones became more widely used in 2013 when it
added the ability to send cash to any U.S. adult who has an e-mail address. Starbucks
reported in 2014 that 12 percent of its customers paid through the company’s app on a
mobile device (Starbucks includes payment capabilities along with tracking of its reward
points program in its apps). You will learn more about the fast-changing area of mobile
payment systems in Chapter 11.
In the next section, you will learn how online business pioneers adapted auctions, a
very old business practice, to a new online business opportunity.

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