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About The Netherlands
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The Electronic Commerce Action Plan, conducted at the Hague, March 1998
explained the Netherlands current position and in the process of setting
forth future goals presented several obstacles to E-commerce. One of the most unique aspects of
e-commerce in the Netherlands is the fact that this market driven enterprise
is intended to be an information gateway to the European community in the
same way that the Dutch currently act as a point of distribution of goods to
Europe.
Netherlands current position
- The
market penetration of PCs and number of subscriptions to the internet is
relatively high, almost 22% of Dutch companies now have a subscription
to the Internet
- The
Netherlands is a nation that is familiar with the notion of charge cards
with pin codes and telebanking
- There
are a large number of smartcards in comparison to most Western countries
- Important
providers such as Philips, Baan, KPN, Erickson and Alcatel and European
market leaders in the area of transport, business and financial
services, trade and publishing (there are already 30,000 business web
sites)
- Good
underlying infrastructure for logistics and distribution
- International
outlook, high standard of education, good linguistic skills
Obstacles to E-commerce
- Recognition
of the limitations of rapid expansion due to legal, economic, and
technical issues. (See
Diagram below)
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Demand
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Supply
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Economic factors
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· costs of telecommunications
and end-user
equipment
· lack of (and lack of
confidence in) electronic
payment systems
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· lack of knowledge and
awareness
· uncertainty about return
on investment
· lack of (and lack of
confidence in) electronic
payment systems
· branding and marketing
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Legal factors
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· jurisdiction and liability
· electronic signatures/
authentication
· consumer protection and
privacy
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· jurisdiction and liability
· electronic signatures/
authentication
· intellectual property and
copyright
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Technical factors
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· capacity of infra-structure
· complexity of software
· IT skills and knowledge
of users
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· capacity of
infrastructure
· IT skills and knowledge
of providers
· standardization &
harmonization
· millennium and euro
problems
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- SMEs
are reluctant to invest on the people, hardware, and software for an
uncertain return on investment
- Need
for internationally coordinated action plans to resolve legal
uncertainties
“Internet use in
the Netherlands grew from 1.6 million users at the end of 1998 to
approximately 2.3 million users by mid-1999.” Total sales of
electronic services and products in the Netherlands in 1997 have been
estimated to be worth over NLG 1.2 billion. The market segments are broken up into the following:
E-shopping/E-banking (17%), Pay TV/Music/ Games (17%), E-mail, Video
Conferencing (4%), Lotteries/ Gambling (13%), Software/Search Engines,
Browsers (1%), EDI/ PDI (10%), Databases/ Information/ News (38%).
There are three main types of online transactions in the
Netherlands are B2C, B2B, and B2A.
Business-to-Business transactions are accomplished through EDI
(Electronic Data Interchange) and PDI (Product Data Interchange). This segment of e-commerce has the
greatest potential. Business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic shopping is still
in its infancy in the Netherlands.
B2C electronic bill payment and presentment (EBBP) and well as
telebanking has really taken off.
Business-to-Administration electronic tax filing and public
procurement contracts have also begun to take hold in the Netherlands.
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