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Being a transformation in the way businesses do business, B2B e-commerce is undoubtedly the hit of Taiwan this year. The Taiwan government has developed a five-year plan to promote B2B e-commerce among private businesses, focusing on establishing 200 in-line business networks connecting more than 50,000 firms by the year 2004. Although Internet usage brings a lot of benefits, at the end of 1999 actual application of the B2B e-commerce in Taiwan centered only on large enterprises, especially information technology (IT) sector. Most small and mid-sized enterprises have been unable to develop their own B2B e-commerce systems because of high start-up cost and shortage of relevant resources. The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is examining ways to help local manufacturers establish their own B2B e-commerce systems, drafting measures to attract e-commerce certification institutes, ICPs, ISPs and IAPs to this island. Besides the government's offering incentives, companies are still facing problems and uncertainties such as network security, coordination with upstream and downstream firms, Internet bandwidth and technical support. Marketing over the Internet is certainly the trend, but its complexity is also challenging. Compared with traditional methods, however, B2B e-commerce represents a more powerful instrument for the companies to advertise and display their goods. That's one of the reasons companies are actively participating in this new system. Today B2B e-commerce is not only a slogan of Taiwan businesses. Demand is real, the question is not only why or when, but how to make it happen. ---- Adapted from Taiwan International Trade |