Business Without Borders: E-business and the International Community

Superficially, electronic business appears to be a simple way of rendering national borders irrelevant, reaching a vastly increased number of potential customers, and conducting transactions that are "frictionless" i.e. for which transaction costs such as those of identifying customers and the administrative procedures associated with a sale are an order of magnitude lower than those of conventional, "over-the-counter", transactions. This is a misconception; there are many obstacles. Different national financial systems may hamper payment. A web advertisement that is perfectly acceptable in one culture may offend people of a different culture. Language differences and imperfect translations May cause offence or confusion. Nations regulate electronic business differently and have different attitudes to civil liberties; authoritarian countries may restrict and supervise their citizens' web activities. The most serious impediment to business to consumer activity is fulfilment: Reliably delivering web-ordered goods to consumers is expensive and may be problematic in countries with unsophisticated infrastructures.