Just two years ago Cisco accounted for the majority of E-business conducted throughout the world all by itself. Its web site generates two thirds of its current business (Siebel, p.173).
The Internet was created in the 1970s when the U.S. government and universities wanted to have their computers communicate with each other. With that, they created the first actual working Intranet (IntrAnet - A small private network of computers; usually used in business). This Intranet was the first small step toward connecting the world's computers in the virtual world we call the Internet. Why didn't we see E-commerce in the 1970s or even the 1980s, you ask? The big reason is that there wasn't a market. The only people who used the Internet in the 1970s and 1980s were young computer geeks like Steve Jobs (Founder of Apple Computer). Another big reason was that the technology was not ready for handling such a big task. There was no security on the net and no real net format. The age of visual computing didn't start until the late 1980s and early 1990s. Access speed was also a big issue. Back then it could have taken an hour just to download a picture of the product you were buying, and that's obviously way too long to make it work. Speed and immediacy will help E-commerce to thrive. Rome wasn't built in a day, however, a Geocities site can be built in a half-hour. (Builders and Titans, 137).
The technology has now grown enough to allow E-commerce to be a booming business not only on the net but also in the stock market where billions have been made. The technology now has a new standard for the transactions. E-commerce is now the biggest shopping mall in the world where you can buy anything you could ever possibly need from shirts to cereal to your car. Last Christmas, Santa found a new way into the home. Millions of shoppers logged onto the Internet to do their Christmas shopping. They bought books, toys, music, and other gifts from computers hooked up by phone lines and cable modems to the virtual stores (Jung, C1).