E-commerce is defined simply as electronic business. This means any business done electronically usually over the internet. E-commerce is the means of selling products or services on the internet using web pages. This involves much of the same processes of selling goods elsewhere, but in a digital format. (Lee) E-commerce can be either business to business or business to consumer. Brian Korr presents a broad definition of e-commerce, "It's everything binary," he said. "We are taking our economy and digitizing it." .
E-commerce had it's beginnings with a few enterprising businesses. These businesses were, Amazon.com, and Ebay.com. Both these businesses were launched in 1995. (Amazon) When Amazon.com first opened its virtual doors on July 16, 1995, it was one of several online booksellers. As Amazon embraced the technology to categorize and display millions of books in one space, people embraced the ability to search for and purchase books in a new way. The experience of building a successful business based on an open system like the Web has influenced Amazon throughout its history. The common perception of Amazon.com is that it is a web-based bookstore, but like its namesake river, Amazon.com is much more than merely a place to buy books. Today, Amazon.com is really a complex web application. Instead of just a place to buy various items, Amazon.com is a tool you can customize and adapt to your own uses. (Farris).
EBay was founded in Pierre Omidyar's San Jose living room back in September 1995. It was from the start meant to be a marketplace for the sale of goods and services for individuals. EBay has built an online person-to-person trading community on the Internet, using the World Wide Web. Buyers and sellers are brought together in a manner where sellers are permitted to list items for sale, buyers to bid on items of interest and all eBay users to browse through listed items in a fully automated way.