The rise of M-Commerce

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M-Commerce

The modern technological world can easily assist innovative minds to explore new horizons. “World at your fingertips’ is perhaps an apt way to put it candidly. When it comes to internet, then sky is the limit. Food, apparels, electronics, utensils and practically anything, which is required in day to day life, is available at just one click, and most of them will be delivered at your doorstep. In the past few years, we have witnessed the emergence of m-commerce as the face of online shopping. India’s largest online marketplace, Snapdeal has recently acquired FreeCharge, India’s fastest growing mobile transactions platform. This is one of the biggest acquisitions in the history of the internet industry in India and sets up Snapdeal to build the most impactful digital commerce ecosystem in India.

It all started in 1997 in London, when Mr. Kevin Duffey, the Executive chairman of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum coined the term “mobile commerce” officially with the aim of delivering electronic commerce potential to the customers through wireless technology, anywhere in the world. The idea was accepted widely by hundreds of companies within a year, including big-timers like Apple, Vodafone, Alkatel, Mastercard, Motorola, Nokia etc. Initially, the mobile commerce services were based on SMS. The first practical implementation of the same was introduced in 1997 at Helsinki, Finland where 2 Coca Cola vending machines were installed and payments were accepted through SMS. Also, SMS based banking services were introduced by Merita Bank of Finland in the same year. The greatest milestone in the m-commerce industry came when mobile commerce was integrated with internet in the year 1997, and the first m-commerce server was introduced. Later in 1998, downloadable ringtones were introduced in Finland by Radiolinja, which was a big leap in the entire e-commerce industry. Gradually, several companies started concentrating on various aspects of m-commerce and thus the technology started booming.

In the beginning of the 21st century, various mobile commerce services became available in the market including Mobile banking, Media downloads, Ticket reservations, etc. In the past few years, the year-on-year increase in the number of mobile phone users was more than 25%. Hence online shopping companies started targeting the market of mobile phone users. In order to improve the performance of websites in mobile, companies have started simplifying the browsing experience. Later smartphones entered the market. The apps compatible with smart phones were becoming popular. And most recently, e-commerce websites, especially those who deal with apparels and electronic equipments have developed customized mobile apps with an intention to capture the market. This move turned beneficial, since the apps were free to download, user friendly and many of the online shopping sites provided special discounts while purchasing through their apps.

The only issue now affects the performance of mobile banking is the network availability. As the mobile phones are becoming part of our daily life, there are several researches going on to find a solution to overcome the slowness in the network.

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