E-Commerce Strategies, Ethical and Legal Issues

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Table of Contents

Revenue models
www.youtube.com
www.hotmail.com
www.bayt.com
B2C e-commerce applications for UAE
G2B e-commerce applications based in the UAE
Ethical and legal concerns
Works Cited

Revenue models

Website development and management are concepts of the 21^st century that earn multibillion-dollar companies revenue through different ways. YouTube, Microsoft’s Hotmail, and Baytar sites are of much interest because they attract audiences that require diverse services. Web developers customize the content to fit perfectly in the consumer needs because they earn from the number of visits people make from such sites.

Revenue models refer to strategies established by organizations to explain their intentions and business practices that would earn them income. In general, each organization strives at profit making and reputation building in order to attract many customers, investors, and advertisers. Revenue models are different including subscription, production, free-for-service, markup, commissioning licensing, and the advertising model (Barrow, Barrow, and Brown 151).

www.youtube.com

YouTube combines both elements of the production and the pay-for-service models. Besides developing products to meet consumers’ needs and give value for money, the services attract consumers who need to subscribe to videos, music, or games. The YouTube page has the ability to identify the country of origin for the different users. In addition, it gives room for one to see the latest videos including the ones that the user reviewed before the current log in.

The company’s revenue model largely depends on the number of searchers an individual makes depending on the tastes and preferences. The company also earns revenue by introducing related searches that might equally interest the user. Naturally, the company employs the pay-for-service model that enables people to access services depending on the value for their money (Barrow, Barrow, and Brown 156). Each time a user logs onto the YouTube website, he/she has to load more information, meaning that the user spends additional funds to access what he/she needs.

The website caters for the needs of different people, including video game lovers, music fanatics, and movie reviewers among other forms of entertainment. The free-for-service model ensures that the company earns money anytime a person is online. However, it differs from the subscription model that requires a user to pay monthly, weekly, or annually, depending on the type of services offered. The free-for-space model enables the user to download selected videos, games, and music and watch at his/her convenience (Blackwell 13). YouTube’s production model gives value for money because people only acquire the services they need; they have an option of subscription or direct access. They can also upload their videos or photos and share while earning YouTube revenue.

www.hotmail.com

The Hotmail website assumes a commissioning model. Unlike the markup model, it does not involve increment of prices prior to resale of the same product or service. In the commissioning model, an enterprise charges for promoting two different components at the same time (Barrow, Barrow, and Brown 19). In most cases, one cannot access the website unless he/she owns an Outlook account. As such, without signing in or creating an Outlook account, one cannot access any information.

Further, when offline, it is impossible to access the webpage that has information concerning Google play and App store. In essence, Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have products to sell for iPod, iPad, and other Android powered devices. Both Apple and Google have stakes in the business, and it explains why they use the commissioning model to market the products and services from end users interested in Apple phones and Google applications. People with or without Outlook accounts cannot stay on the page unless they have internet data to sustain the information transfer (Barrow, Barrow, and Brown 150).

www.bayt.com

The bayt website links job seekers to various job opportunities. Bayt.com offers interview tips to job seekers while enabling the job providers to review the profiles of potential candidates. Bay.com uses an advertising model because it provides space for job advertisers to market careers. On the website, different companies advertise their products and services including INTECH and YOU. Bayt.com increases revenue when people purchase the advertised products and services. The advertising firms have the ability to know the site that linked a consumer to their products or services (Blackwell 14).

B2C e-commerce applications for UAE

EBay, Amazon, and Alibaba offer B2C e-commercial services because they link consumers to products and services directly. The companies market and sell products for Zappos and Souq among other online retailers that equally reach out to the UAE market. B2C e-commerce refers to the Business-to-Consumer approach in which a customer makes a direct request that a service provider or a business responds to immediately. It could be through the internet or directly, and, sometimes, it involves home delivery. The three websites are equally helpful for B2C business transactions (Dubai Branding Process par. 1).

Advertising

B2C electronic commerce provides applications for online data storage and information acquisition. Outlook Hotmail offers the App Store and Google Play options to users who own accounts with them through the website. Through the mobile applications, consumers can get iTunes, video games, Google maps, and video download options using various virtual devices. With over 130 million internet service users, the Middle East has a huge potential for B2C growth.

In the Outlook Hotmail website, customers can order iTunes online and pay via PayPal among other online services. Online sales through Amazon and Alibaba made the UAE record over $5 billion in January 2015 because the region promotes online sales and advertisements of clothes, jewelry, and electronics. Besides the Outlook online transactions, Bayt.com offers a platform for businesses to advertise their products and services. Outlook advertises its own services while mediating on behalf of Google and Apple (Dubai Branding Process par. 2).

Bayt.com indirectly advertises car companies, watch manufacturers, and other luxury items including perfumes. Walt Disney Company takes the opportunity to advertise on Bayt.com’s page occasionally for its Middle East branch, especially when sourcing for new employees. The conservative Middle Eastern market is difficult to penetrate with e-commerce, but the UAE countries including Qatar and Dubai constantly promote electronically powered businesses between the continent and the West.

Making orders

B2C e-commerce services are important for making online orders. By 2011, Bahrain and Kuwait recorded an increase in e-commercial revenue by about 50% and 75% respectively. During the same period, the government blocked internet access of news items that politically promoted insurgency in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt among other Middle Eastern countries. The UAE countries enjoyed an expansion of the broadband services since the countries needed several avenues of economic expansion. Facebook and Twitter created platforms for advertisements and online orders.

The Outlook platform and Bayt.com would similarly perform such functions because advertisers asked consumers to place orders on the online shopping cart. Dubai residents sell and buy items through online ordering, and they can remove items they do not need from the shopping cart. In the end, the marketer decides to ship the items to the target destination before receiving money and offering a sales receipt. Online shops are cost effective and convenient, thus giving the UAE residents a reason to increase their presence on online platforms. Online orders supported by B2C business transactions influence many people to purchase from Amazon.com, and it explains the extensive interest in Namshi clothes, Jumia jewelry, and music from YouTube in which consumers can also subscribe (West par. 4).

E-consultancy

OLX is a regional product used by different countries for sale of either new and old items or services. For the UAE, the residents prefer Namshi, Amazon, and Souq for marketing of e-consultancy services. The trend received positive feedback in the late 2010, and to date remains an employer of thousands of UAE residents. E-consultants use the virtual platform for educating people and earning income. E-consultants upload videos on YouTube in order to explain how they do business.

YouTube is a virtual network that people can easily subscribe to in order to learn from different experts across the world. Experts offer advice and directions on plumbing services, economics, and technology management among different areas. UAE companies that largely depend on outsourcing expatriates can meet employees through Bayt.com while still going through their uploaded profiles on YouTube. In essence, Bayt.com can use YouTube services, especially when the companies need to see the different activities of the applicant in relation to the uploaded curriculum vitae.

Recently, the contractors of King Abdullah Economic City used Bayt.com to advertise vacancies for employees (Dubai Branding Process par. 2). On the same platform, consultants in the field of technology offered online classes to willing candidates who wanted to learn practical skills required by the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) team. Amazon, Namshi, and MarkaVIP are currently rivals for the most dominant position of the best online retailers of consultancy services. In addition, Souq remains very helpful, especially for finding online technology experts that have links within the GCC countries.

G2B e-commerce applications based in the UAE

Digitalization of governments is not a new concept as the Government to Businesses (G2B) model explains. Experts describe e-governments in different ways including online, linked, and internet governments. The rationale is that service delivery to people becomes very easy since the government can easily connect with the public though virtual technologies as applied in the ways discussed below.

Offering government tenders

YouTube offers a production model to revenue generation. In essence, the company gives value that the user pays for after accessing the website. The same happens with the involvement of an e-government that equally seeks to gain from its association with the public. At the G2B level, both the government and the citizen operate on electronic levels. Dubai has a diverse approach to e-commerce since it offers tenders to people at the city, national, and international level. Notably, e-citizens can receive information via YouTube in order to learn about government prospects in relation to the subject (Blackwell 59).

The e-citizens require information about tenders and equity in resource distribution, but the e-government has interests in distributing the procurements. Just like the willing buyer willing bidder platform, e-citizens can access information when the government solicits for bidders through Bayt.com among other e-consultancy platforms. Through the business process re-engineering (BPR), the e-government gets to access the profiles of contractors who can execute the duties as the government expects. Through such online platforms, people can also seek their lost identity cards and travel documents, instead of visiting government offices for unending procedures (West par. 6).

Participation in governance

Citizens will always take great interest in government activities. The aspect of false consciousness will always exist; it increases the curiosity of citizens in various governance activities. Corruption is a problem in almost each society at least proven by prominent scholars including Karl Marx in his theory of classes. Since YouTube is a platform accessed by over 130 million residents of the Middle East, the government has an opportunity to post comments, blog about progress, and promote transparency through this online platform. E-governments such as Kuwait and Jordan struggle to withdraw from the traditionalist concept of governance and information.

They seek a transparent online outreach to people. The Middle East has some of the strictest media rules in the world, but the UAE appreciates that the social media is very difficult to control. As such, it forms the primary basis of communication between the e-government and the e-citizens. The UAE residents can choose the best political candidate by reviewing his/her policies and actions, file tax returns, and monitor government activities through this platform. The e-government understands the needs of the e-citizens, and it strives at informing people and consulting with them in case of problems that require communal attention (West par. 7).

Ethical and legal concerns

People need jobs, and companies need to link them up with credible job seekers. Most companies also require platforms for advertisement of job opportunities. As in the case of dubizzle.com and jobs.ac.uk, both sites require publicity. Jobs.ac.uk needs the most cost effective and efficient platform for communication while dubizzle.com needs to capture the attention of the people visiting such job sites. As such, dubizzle.com does not have the legal or ethical right to copy a job advert from jobs.ac.uk to its website without consent.

It would only mean that dubizzle.com has business interests, and does not care about the professional image that jobs.ac.uk need to maintain by not advertising on its website. Different reasons cause dubizzle.com to copy-paste the advert, including financial interests and reputation building for associating with a credible employer in the UK (Blackwell 12). According to the professional code of ethics of Business and Professions section 6010, the use of a trademark, logo, or name of a company for business gains violates the code and attracts legal conviction (Rules of Professional Conduct par. 14).

Letterheads and names of companies need protection, and any other person or company does not have the right to use such communication property without the consent of the targeted party. The code of ethics also establishes that any form of solicitation for information not meant to appear on a particular web page or an organization amounts to violation of moral principles.

Ownership of communication and its apparatus remains a point of great concern because dubizzle.com will have to answer to the courts once established to commit such an offense (Rules of Professional Conduct 18). The intention is to earn respect and give credit to originality since dubizzle.com can use production or markup business models to earn income. In the end, the site will only destroy its reputation, hence losing the trust of public. Such behavior remains unethical and unlawful, and dubizzle.com should refrain from the same for future reference.

Works Cited

Barrow, Colin, Paul Barrow, and Robert Brown. The Business Plan Workbook: The Definitive Guide to Researching, Writing up and Presenting a Winning Plan. 6th ed. London: Kogan Page Limited, 2008. Print.

Blackwell, Edward. How to Prepare a Business Plan: Planning for Successful Start-up and Expansion. 3rd ed. London: Kogan Page Limited, 1998. Print.

Dubai Branding Process. 2014. Web.

Rules of Professional Conduct. 2013. Web.

West, Darrell. Improving Technology Utilization in Electronic Government Around the World. 2008. Web.

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