News
Commonwealth bank Netbank falls-over. Traffic overload blamed but hacker attack a strong possibility.
by Stewart Carter
Internet banking services at Australia’s largest retail bank, the Commonwealth Bank, have been severely disrupted in recent days and, as we go to press, are still suffering performance issues.
An official spokeswoman said that the issues were mainly the result of a traffic overload at the end of the financial year. She said that Netbank had experienced its busiest day on record.
Read more [2 July 2009]
Nick Bolton explains why he took Supreme Court action against au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA)
Australian Style CEO, Nick Bolton was wearing his favourite light-grey silk suit in the Supreme Court in Melbourne this week.
His youthful appearance, and fashionably unkempt shoulder-length hairstyle was in stark contrast to the sober style and all-grey mane of his chief protagonist at the au Domain Administration Ltd - Chris Disspain.
Read more [2 July 2009]
Melbourne IT set to profit from ICANN's new top level global domains (TLD's)
Melbourne IT stands poised to profit from next years opening up of the global Internet domain name system to new top level domains (TLDs) following its recent signing of a memorandum of understanding with US company - Verisign.
Dr Bruce Tonkin, Melbourne IT’s chief strategy officer, said that the MoU is an extension of the partnership the two companies already enjoy, and positions Melbourne IT to offer a complete package of services to any company wanting to set up a new gTLD.
Read more [2 July 2009]
ATM Reforms produce guaranteed 20% investment return?
If it looks too good to be true it probably is. And a guaranteed 20% return definitely looks too good to be true.
But thats exactly what is being offered by promoters of an Automated Telling Machine (ATM) investment scheme, including former Federal Liberal MPs, Grant Chapman and Ross Cameron.
Even more surprising is the fact that they’re citing the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), and its recent direct-charging reforms, as laying the foundation for the scheme.
Read more [25 June 2009]
No fine for Bottle Domains hacker. Just a good behaviour bond and $150 court costs.
A Perth magistrate has put 22 year old Brendan Roy Taylor on a 12 month good behaviour bond for hacking into Bottle Domains computer systems,
downloading tens of thousands of customer records, and trying to sell the credit card details online.
Taylors hack started a chain of events that now has Bottle's owner, Nick Bolton, fighting to hang on to Bottle's official accreditation as a domain name registrar.
Read more [25 June 2009]
Intabill facing collapse, leaving gambling sites owed tens of millions?
Controversial Brisbane headquartered payments gateway, Intabill, may be facing collapse in the wake of a Supreme Court of Queensland action over alleged non payment of funds owned to leading online poker sites.
Initial press reports said that Intabill owed four big poker sites, including Pokerstars.net, some $30million.
A more recent report, in the Brisbane Courier Mail, suggests that the amount being claimed in the court action is $52million, comprised of $43 million in outstanding payments, and accrued interest.
Read more [24 June 2009]
eBay Australia's new Certified eBay Educator programme goes live.
eBay Australia's new Certified eBay Educator programme is now up and running with a 30 question exam now online.
Developed by Sydney based market research company, Stokes Mischewski, the new programme replaces the former eBay 'Education Specialist'
arrangement with PowerU university in the US.
Read more [18 June 2009]
Domain name aftermarket picking up - Sextoys.com.au sells for $25,500
Compared to the prices paid for dot.com domain names, $25,500 is hardly a large amount.
But it’s a record for a dot com dot au domain name and, perhaps, an indicator that the Australian domain name aftermarket may finally be picking up.
Read more [18 June 2009]
eTailer of the week – VetnPetDirect.com.au
This weeks eTailer of the week is Vet-n-pet Direct - a little Aussie business that proves
you can start-up and grow an online shop to be a global success even from a regional location like Beaudesert in south east Queensland.
From humble beginnings with an eBay presence in 2005, company founder - Belinda Geissler and her veterinarian husband have developed VetnPetDirect as a stand alone online shop with customers all over the world.
Read more [17 June 2009]
EFTPOS not in decline, won’t go the way of Bankcard says new head of EFTPOS Payments Australia
Greg Devlin doesn’t agree that Australia’s unique, locally-developed EFTPOS payments system is going to go the way of
another locally-developed (but now extinct) payments innovation, Bankcard.
He’s confident that the local system does have a future, despite the growing market penetration of the international
competition from Visa and MasterCard branded debit cards.
Read more [11 June 2009]
Auctiva backs down on worst of new fees for eBay sellers
Many eBay sellers now using free Auctiva services may soon have to pay, but not as much as first announced.
And a free 30 day trial of Auctiva’s marketing tools, including the widely-used ‘scrolling gallery’ of related listings, will still be available
Read more [11 June 2009]
Paddy Power buys into Australian online wagering market growing at 16% a year
Online wagering in Australia is growing rapidly, and perhaps as much as 16% a year.
Elmer Kuppe, CEO of the Australian gaming behemoth, TabCorp, told a recent Macquarie Equities conference that the company is
now taking more than $1billion in wagering bets over the Internet.
Read more [11 June 2009]
Air New Zealand adds POLI to online payment options
Locally developed online payment system, POLi, is gaining traction in the New Zealand marketplace.
It has now added Air New Zealand to its Kiwi customer base, which already includes NZ government agency - Land Transport NZ.
Bruce Parton, Air New Zealand’s group general manager for ‘short-haul’ airline travel said that the new payment option
is great for people who either don’t have a credit-card or prefer not to use it online.
Read more [4 June 2009]
New top level Internet domains up for debate at ICANN 35 in Sydney
Proposed new global top level Internet domains (gTLDs) will likely move closer to becoming a reality
at the upcoming Sydney meeting of the world’s top Internet rule-making body – ICANN ( Internet Corporation on Assigned Names and Numbers)
later this month.
Many larger businesses are expected to want a global top level domain (gTLD).
It will enable those businesses (e.g. Ford) to have their brand accessible at www.ford instead of
www.ford.com.
Read more [3 June 2009]
Thousands of Australian credit cards at risk in latest online security breach
Police are investigating the theft of card and contact details for thousands of Australian Visa and Mastercard users apparently posted to an Internet blog sometime before April 21st this year.
Reports in the Australian newspaper last Friday, the 19th of May, and again on Monday the 22nd of May have revealed that Australia’s big four banks have acknowledged that at least 600 customer accounts are involved.
Read more [1 June 2009]
Buyster brings US online retail down-under
Buyster is a new player in the Australian online retail marketspace, with a business model already proven in the US.
Backed by News Ltd cash-box, Netus, the business is a joint-venture with US eTailer, CSN.
It is using the same approach that has powered CSN from zilch to over $US200million in annual sales in just six short years.
Read more [28 May 2009]
Melbourne IT profit up, but domain name numbers down
Profits were up, but domain name sales down at ASX listed Melbourne IT (ASX Code:MLB).
But despite a challenging first half, and continued difficult conditions the company is forecasting another year
of double digit revenue growth according to CEO Theo Hnarakis.
Read more [28 May 2009]
Trade Me loses WIPO attempt to win control of Trademe.com
New Zealand’s biggest ecommerce company, Trade Me, has failed in an attempt to win control of the domain name - trademe.com - at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
And industry experts are suggesting the company could be forced to pay handsomely, perhaps as much as $1million, if it really wants the name.
Read more [25 May 2009]
Official statistics show Australian online card fraud up 20% in 2008
New official statistics show online fraud perpetrated on Australian issue credit and charge cards was significantly higher in 2008.
Overall credit and charge card fraud increased to a rate of 53.2cents in every $1000, up from 44.7cents in 2007.
Read more [20 May 2009]
Commonwealth Bank confirms plans for contactless card reader roll-out
Australia’s Commonwealth Bank has confirmed plans for a roll-out of some 5000 contactless credit-card readers in the second half of this year.
Dominic White, the CBA’s general manager of merchant solutions, said the readers will support both MasterCard’s PayPass and Visa’s PayWave technologies.
Read more [20 May 2009]
US ecommerce sales holding up despite recession
New US online sales estimates from Comscore suggests that ecommerce is alive and well, despite the US recession, with online retail
in the first quarter of 2009 worth some $31billion.
That figure is unchanged compared to the same quarter last year, whereas US retail sales overall for March 2009 (excluding automobile sales) were down 3% in real
(i.e. inflation-adjusted) terms, and down some 7% in actual dollar value.
Read more [20 May 2009]
Australian online advertising still growing, but not classifieds
Online advertising held-up well in the first three months of 2009, despite another flat quarter for online classifieds.
Overall spending for the quarter was $439.5million according to the latest quarterly estimates from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).
Read more [14 May 2009]
Myer giftcards used as bait in phishing scam
Myer giftcards worth $500 are the bait in an apparent phishing scam hitting Australians email inboxes this week.
NSW minister for Fair Trading, Virginia Judge, raised the alarm about the phishing emails in a warning statement she released earlier this week.
Read more [14 May 2009]
auDA locks 20,000 Bottle customers’ domain names
An audacious effort to side-step the industry regulator has seen Nick Bolton’s Australian Style Pty Ltd lose control of some 20,000 customer’s domain names.
Australian Style P/L (trading as Bottle Domains) transferred some 20,000 customers’ domain names to one of Bolton’s other businesses last weekend.
But the move has come horribly unstuck. The domain name industry regulator – AuDA Ltd has reversed the transfers.
Read more [13 May 2009]
Commonwealth Bank unveils new online payment gateway - eVolve
A new range of payment services for online merchants has been unveiled by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia(CBA).
Called eVolve, the new payment gateway service is said to have been purpose-built for the CBA and, in a first for the industry, is being offered in conjunction with a new bank hosting service known as eVolve iSHOP.
Read more [7 May 2009]
PayPal targets non-profit organisations with Blackbaudnow in new Au marketing push
by Stewart Carter
As part of a marketing push targeting non-profit organisations, PayPal Australia has announced the upcoming release of a localized version of a web-site builder service from US company Blackbaud.
“We identified a gap in the market and designed this programme to help more organisations tap into the internet’s revenue building capacity, while also helping to build new markets for PayPal” said
Glenn Lim, global head of Alliances and Vertical Markets for PayPal.
Lim, who was in Sydney for the launch announcement, said that non-traditional e-commerce markets, including non-profits, education and local government are increasingly important sources of business for PayPal.
Read more [5 May 2009]
PayPal to launch local Au Certified Developer and Partner programme
PayPal will roll out an Australian version of its ‘Certified Developer and Partner’ programme in July this year.
The news was announced in Sydney last week during the visit down-under of PayPal’s global head of alliances and vertical markets, Glenn Lim.
According to the announcement, the programme will “recruit local developers and solution providers to help meet the growing demand for online payments outside of the retail sector.”
Read more [5 May 2009]
First quarter 2009 eBay results show marketplace slide and PayPal growth continuing
American ecommerce giant, eBay, has reported a healthy, if reduced profit, for the first quarter of 2009.
Net income for the quarter, at $US357million, or 28c per share, was down 22% on the same quarter last year.
The drop was attributable mainly to a continuing slide in the popularity of eBay’s core marketplaces.
Read more [30 April 2009]
auDA cracking down on bogus org.au domain registrations
Nearly a quarter of all the org.au domains licensed since 1 January 2007 are at risk of being de-registered by the end of June.
An Au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) survey has revealed that 4,113 of the 18,000 org.au domains registered since 1 Jan 2007 fail to comply with the eligibility rules.
Read more [29 April 2009]
Australia to update ecommerce laws
Australia’s federal and state governments have agreed to update their electronic commerce laws enabling the Australian government to sign on to a United Nations Convention on the use of
Electronic Communications in International Contracts.
The decision was made at the latest meeting of the Standing Committee of federal and state Attorney’s General (SCAG) on the 16th and 17th of April.
A communiqué issued after the meeting said the Attorneys had agreed to amend their existing Electronic Transactions Acts.
Read more [29 April 2009]
Wesfarmers/Coles loses more than $20million on deal to sell Pharmacydirect.com.au back to chemists
A group of chemists associated with the Terry White franchise has paid a reputed $20million for a business said to be Australia's largest online seller of pharmacy products - PharmacyDirect.com.au.
The seller is the Wesfarmers owned Coles Group, and specifically its subsidiary company - Now.com.au Pty Ltd.
Read more [23 April 2009]
Bolton wins, auDA loses, Bottle Domains lives on (for the moment)
The injunction stands. Nick Boltons Internet domain name business - Bottle Domains - can continue registering Au domain names.
That’s the long and short of today’s Supreme Court action in Melbourne where industry regulator – au Domain Administration Ltd – failed to overturn an emergency injunction granted to Bolton’s company – Australian Style Ltd.
The injunction will stand, at least until a trial is held, on or about June 24th this year.
Read more [22 April 2009]
11,000 Au domain names customers completely confused as Bottle Domains wins temporary reprieve
by Stewart Carter
Some 11,000 customers of Nick Bolton’s Internet domain name registration business – Bottle Domains – are in total confusion at the moment.
Early last week they got an email from industry regulator, au Domain Administration Ltd, telling them that auDA had decided to de-license Bottle Domains.
The email said that auDA was taking control of their domain names and they had to transfer their names to another auDA approved registrar.
Read more [20 April 2009]
Nick Bolton's domain name business – Bottle Domains - loses .AU accreditation
BrisConnections unit-holders who reckon Nick Bolton earned $4.5million by double-crossing them earlier this week may well be cheered by the news that one of his Australian Style Group’s
domain name businesses has lost its official .Au accreditation.
They may now also not be surprised to learn that the business – Bottle Domains - appears to have lied about a recent security audit.
Read more [16 April 2009]
VISA Australia defends PCI-DSS online card security scheme
Bottle Domains false claim that it had been recognised as compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) is not the only reason why Australian ecommerce businesses should be asking questions about the standard.
Nor is the recent statement by Philip Lowe – Assistant Governor (Financial Systems) at the Reserve Bank - that phone and online card fraud grew by as much as 50% in Australia last year.
But it is a fact that debate over PCI-DSS in the US has recently become so intense that the future of the scheme has been the subject of special hearings before a congressional committee.
Read more [16 April 2009]
Verisign closes PCI-DSS audit business down-under
Global US online services company, Verisign, has closed its specialist PCI-DSS security audit business in Australia, in what may be seen as yet further evidence of declining industry confidence in the standard.
Verisign’s Stephan Overbeek had been one of twelve PCI-DSS Qualified Security Assessors listed on the PC I Security Standards Council web-site as doing business in Australia.
Read more [16 April 2009]
Australian government to build $43billion broadband network
Australian ecommerce businesses are celebrating following the announcement that the government is to build a national high-speed broadband network at a cost of some $43billion.
The new National Broadband Network (NBN) should underwrite the continued development of online and ecommerce businesses, and particularly those that can benefit from high data transfer rates.
Read more [9 April 2009]
eTailer of the Week – BigBrownBox.com.au
Our eTailer of the week this week is BigBrownBox.com.au.
Launched around 6 months ago, the online store offers name brand electrical appliances from companies such as Sony, Apple, Panasonic and the like.
Peter Krideras is the general manager of BigBrownBox.com.au which is wholly owned by listed company, RR Australia Ltd.
Read more [9 April 2009]
Intabill gets PCI security accreditation for online card transactions
Brisbane headquartered online payments processor, Intabill, has been certified compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standard.
In a statement issued late last month Intabill claimed it is one of the first companies in Australia to achieve compliance.
Read more [9 April2009]
Emissions trading auctions on eBay next year?
Will Australian businesses be allowed to sell their carbon pollution permits on eBay? And will they be able pay by credit-card?
These are just two of the numerous intriguing questions about the Australian government’s proposed emissions trading system due to begin next year.
Both questions became suddenly more important last month when the Australian government Department of Climate Change advertised for designers of an online auction system for carbon pollution permits.
Read more [2 April2009]
eTailer of the week - TopBuy.com.au
Peter Xie is the founder, owner and managing director of topbuy.com.au.
He is also a highly-educated fellow. His first degree was a Bachelor of Information Technology degree at the ANU in Canberra, after which he completed an MBA at the University of Technology in Sydney.
TopBuy is his first foray into online retailing, although he has considerable prior business experience with wholesale businesses involved in distribution of electronic products.
He started TopBuy on the 1st of May in 2007.
Read more [2 April 2009]
Woolies gets OK for credit-card monopoly at new ePumps
CALTEX/Woolworths and CALTEX/Safeways co-branded service stations across Australia will soon be able to accept contactless credit-card payments now that the company has successfully cut a deal with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
ACCC chairman, Graeme Samuel, announced yesterday (Wedneday 25th March) that the ACCC had agreed to let Woolies restrict epump payments to its own credit-cards for the next 18 months.
The decision means that only customers with a Woolies Everyday Money Mastercard will be able to use the new ‘swipe and go’ feature of the ePumps.
Read more [26 March 2009]
Betfair on secret Australian government list of banned web-sites?
Online betting exchange operator, Betfair, has written to the Australian government over reports that its site was included in the government’s secret black-list of banned web-sites.
The secret list is maintained by the government’s Australian Communications and Media Authority ACMA) and provided to select Internet software companies for inclusion in their commercial software filters.
Read more [26 March 2009]
One way links the secret to Google success, says NetRegistry
Last year the quickest path to top ranking at Google was having a link to your site from a highly authoritative online source like Wikipedia; and in previous years it was having a lot of links to your site;
but this year it is one-way links.
Thats the word from NetRegistry, as told to those attending the company’s recent free ecommerce training day in Melbourne.
Read more [26 March 2009]
Bottle Domains says card fraud a co-incidence, but gave lists of customer cards to banks anyway
by Stewart Carter
Neither Andrew Stevens, the general manager of Melbourne based Bottle Domains, nor his boss - Nick Bolton, owner of Australian Style Investments –
believe that any of Bottle’s customers’ credit cards have been hit by fraud.
We know that for a fact because, after checking with Bolton, Stevens has finally answered questions put by eCommerce Report about the recent hacking of Bottles’ customer database.
Read more [19 March 2009]
Intabill in new IB Global venture
Andrew Pipolo was the CEO of Paypal Australia until earlier this month. Now he is the CEO -Payments of a new business set up by controversial Brisbane based online payments company, Intabill.
Joint CEO of the new business, known as IB Global, is Paul Lilley, a former Westpac Group General Manager. Lilley is the new CEO- banking for IB Global.
Read more [19 March 2009]
Apology to Asuman Kilich
Turkish born Sydney woman, 55 year old Asuman Kilich, undoubtedly has her troubles.
Last April she pleaded guilty to forging a contract of sale for a $1.3million house owned by a 93 year old woman - Vera Kerr. Kilich was subsequently found not fit to stand trial.
She didn't need eCommerce Report adding to her troubles with this story, which originally said she had been shilling eBay auctions.
Read more [19 March 2009]
NSW Police arrest men using eBay, online auction sites to launder credit card frauds
A NSW based crime syndicate has been using eBay and other online auction sites to launder the proceeds of a major credit-card fraud.
The syndicate is alleged to have bought more than $4.5million of goods using cards created with stolen card numbers.
Read more [11 March 2009]
Flossie gives online diva’s something to sing about
30 year old New Zealand Internet entrepreneur, Jenene Freer, is bringing her Flossie.com stable of web-sites to Australia, hoping to repeat the same spectacular success
she has enjoyed with NZgirl.co.nz and her other sites.
Freer said recently that NZ girl is Australasia’s most popular online magazine for women, attracting more than 250,000 unique browsers every month and boasting 90,000 members.
Read more [11 March 2009]
Global Internet manager - ICANN - comes to Sydney in 2009
The world’s top Internet and domain name management organisation, the International Corporation on Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is coming to Austtralia.
Its next quarterly meeting will be held in Sydney from June 21-26 and the website for both closed and the open public parts of the meeting has now been launched.
Read more [11 March 2009]
Credit card fraud from Bottle Domains hack now confirmed
One of Australia’s big four banks has confirmed fraud on some of the credit-cards whose details were stolen in the theft of up to 60,000 customers records from Bottle Domains.
And another big four bank has confirmed it is watching a list of card accounts at risk, a list sent to it by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) body - the Australian High Tech Crime Commission.
Read more [4 March 2009]
AusRegistry wins $40 million monopoly .Au domain contract extension
Adrian Kinderis and Simon Delzoppo have done it again.
In a deal that should earn their AusRegistry Group up to $40million in revenues over the next four years, Delzoppo and Kinderis have retained their monopoly hold on the master Australian domain names database.
Every time someone buys a 2 year license to an Au domain name at one of the 24 or 25 accredited Au registrars, (such as Melbourne IT, or NetRegistry’s Planet Domain), Kinderis and Delzoppo’s company will earn $14.
Read more [4 March 2009]
Centrebet abandons IAS takeover bid after Sportsbet buys in
The battle of Australia’s big sports bookies is over.
Con Kafataris ‘Centrebet’ has formally abandoned its $20million hostile takeover bid for Mark Read’s International All Sports (IAS) Limited after an adverse ruling from the Takeovers Panel.
Centrebet chairman told the Australian Stock Exchange on the 3rd of March that the company was disappointed, but accepted the Panel’s decision.
Read more [4 March 2009]
Court documents raise serious concerns over .Au domain name regulator - auDA Ltd
by Stewart Carter
Documents lodged with the Supreme Court of Queensland reveal a disturbing picture of sharp practice and summary staff dismissals at Au domain name industry regulator - au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA).
The legal action brought by Melbourne registrar - Domain Directors - stopped auDA from stripping the company of a domain name it has been using for 8 years.
auDA CEO Chris Disspain ordered that Domain Directors be given just 48 hours to respond before he ordered AusRegistry to delete the name and cripple the company's web-site.
But it was auDA's compliance officer, Shayne Honey, who was summarily dismissed in the wake of the incident.
Read more [26 Feb 2009]
Reserve Bank U-turn lets Paypal keep ban on surcharges
A change of heart at the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has allowed eBay subsidiary - Paypal - to keeps its ban on surcharging.
And in return a grateful PayPal has promised not to raise fees for eBay sellers for the next two years.
The decision is a complete U turn from the intentions the RBA announced last year, and gave a surprising rationale - PayPal is too small and unimportant.
Read more [24 Feb 2009]
Federal Police confirm arrest over theft of 60,000 Bottle Domain customer records credit-card details
Federal Police have confirmed that a 22 year old Perth man has been arrested over the theft of Bottle Domain’s entire customer database, including credit-card details.
An estimated 60,000 customer records were stolen, dating back to 2003, with up to 25,000 of the records including complete customer credit-card details.
Even worse, eCommerce Report has obtained convincing proof that the database was being offered for sale on an international hackers web-site.
Following a tip-off from an online forum we joined the hackers site, enabling us take a screen dump of the page.
You can see a copy of the page from the hackers site published with our full report inside.
Read more [23 Feb 2009]
Wiki technology brings practical help to Victorian Bushfire survivors
Internet technologies couldn’t help save 200 people from losing their lives in Victoria’s bush fires last Saturday week.
Nor could they prevent 7000 people becoming homeless overnight.
The schools, kindergartens, churches, shops, police stations and other buildings that were completely destroyed in a few short hours would not have been saved by the smarter use or deployment of web 2.0 technologies.
Even more widespread use of the newest new thing - Twitter – wouldn’t have stopped the destruction.
Read more [19 Feb 2009]
Wotif.com defies downturn, reports improved profit
eCommerce business models may prove to be more resilient than many others in a global recession if the latest results from
Brisbane based Wotif.com are anything to go by.
ASX listed Wotif reported increased sales, improved margins and half year profit up 21% in its latest results released yesterday 18th Feb 2009.
Even more surprising the online accommodation booking company reported room night sales continuing to grow into 2009.
Read more [19 Feb 2009]
Police called in over security breach at .Au domain name registrar - Bottle Domains
Credit card details of an unknown number of customers of Melbourne based domain name registrar - Bottle Domains - may have been stolen in a recent ‘security incident’.
Bottle Domains - which is part of the Australian Style group of domain name registrars, is blaming an un-named "individual employee at a competing Australian .au Registrar."
Read more
Retailers offer 8% gift card bonus on ANZ’s smartypig.com.au redemptions
With 5% interest paid quarterly, Facebook and MySpace friends having access so they can pay in to your account, and “extra value” bonuses of up to
8% when funds are redeemed at a major retailer as a gift card, the ANZ Banks’ new www.smartypig.com.au savings account is certainly different.
No doubt the bank has high hopes it will prove very popular with the millions of younger Australians who spend a lot of their time ‘hanging out’ at social networking sites like Facebook or Myspace.
Read more
New online advertising figures suggest trouble for Seek, Carsales, Trading Post
Online advertising continued to grow in the last quarter of 2008. But growth is slowing and spending on classifieds online is already falling.
These are the headline stories from the latest official industry statistics released this week by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
Google continues to dominate the online advertising landscape, as does spending on search engine advertising generally.
Read more
ACCC gives green light to Stadium Australia Visa monopoly; but knocks back Woolies ePump plan.
What changed Graeme Samuel's mind? Late last year the ACCC chief said that a Visa PayWave monopoly plan for Stadium Australia was anti-competitive and not in the public interest.
But last week, Samuel approved the plan.
And on the same day he knocked back a Woolies plan for an Everyday Money card monopoly at its new ePumps. We asked ACCC Graeme Samuels to call us an explain the difference.
Here's what he had to say.
Read more
Online retailer - conference and expo scheduled for Sydney in August 09
Sydney’s Darling Harbour convention and exhibition centre will be the venue on the 18th and 19th of September for ‘Online Retailer – a new event being described as an Australasian Exhibition &
Conference for Internet Retailing.
That’s the promise of Mark Harvey, managing director of the event producers.
Read more
$12.7billion in mostly online betting turnover at stake in Centrebet bid for IASBet.com
Centrebets $20million hostile takeover for its rival, International All Sports (IAS) has underlined just how big Australian online betting has become.
At least $1.7billion in gambling turnover is involved, most of it wagered online and mostly in Australia.
But this takeover is as much a human story as a business story.
Thats because whilst both companies are corporate bookmakers, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, they are both very much
still family businesses.
Centrebet is really Sydney based trackside bookie, Con Kafataris and his family.
Their takeover target, International All Sports (IAS) is Mark Read’s company.
Read more
Woolies spits the dummy over opposition to it plans to lock out other credit-cards at ePumps
Giant Australian retailer, Woolworths, has threatened to take its bat and ball and go home if it can't lock out competing credit-cards
at new ePumps on the forecourts of its Caltex/Woolworths and Caltex/Safeways co-branded petrol stations.
Woolies dummy spit has been revealed in submissions to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) published on the corporate regulator’s web-site.
Read more
Online market leadership doesn’t protect EzyDVD from collapse
One immediately obvious lesson from the collapse of DVD retailer, ezyDVD, last month is that online market leadership doesn’t necessarily translate into commercial success.
That point is underlined by the release this week of Hitwise data showing www.ezydvd.com.au as being the clear market leader amongst online video and games retailers in Australia.
Read more
US online shoppers soon to get Paymate option at www.ebay.com and other US sites
US online shoppers at www.eBay.com will soon have the option of using Paymate to pay for their purchases in US dollars.
Dilip Rao, Paymate’s founder and CEO, said that the Paymate option will be fully integrated with eBay’s express checkout.
He said the service has been in development for some time and will be available in late February this year.
“Sellers can already register at www.paymate.com so that when we launch the service there’ll be no delay in getting them up and running.”
As an incentive to register now, PayMate is offering a prize of a ‘dream Australian vacation for two’ worth some $7000.
Read more
Online shopping – the ‘Green’ alternative?
Doing business online, shopping online and ecommerce generally, is surely a more environmentally friendly way of shopping and/or doing business.
But is it really as ‘green’ an alternative as it first looks?
That’s the topic of a thought-provoking article published on the UK Independent’s web-site recently.
And eCommerce Report readers will doubtless be interested to know the article’s conclusion.
Read more
Tatts accepts, Betfair declines Victorian licence bid; incumbent TABCorp stays 'mum'
Online betting exchange operator, Betfair, says it hasn’t made a bid for TABCorp’s monopoly Victorian wagering licence.
But the Tatts Group, owners of UniTAB, says it definitely has. And TABCorp claims it isn’t allowed to say whether it has lodged a bid to keep its licence.
That’s the upshot of a ring around of the main potential bidders following the 16th January deadline for responses to the Victorian government’s official call for registrations of interest.
Read more
Telecom NZ closes Ferrit.co.nz - New Zealand's largest online shopping mall
Telecom NZ is closing Ferrit.co.nz, said to be New Zealand’s largest online shopping mall.
The shock news was announced via a corporate media release dated Monday 12th January, and has also been published on the home page at www.ferrit.co.nz.
It seems that the service was unprofitable and, whilst still growing in popularity, was unlikely to become profitable any time soon.
“Ferrit has continued to grow during the past three years but the current retail environment has meant the break-even point has shifted out a number of years.
The decision has now been made to refocus and resources will be directed to other areas,” said Alan Gourdie, CEO, Telecom NZ Retail.
He added that Ferrit had helped spur the development of a local online and ecommerce sector.
Read more
NetRegistry buys into Au Domain Marketplace
NetRegistry has paid an undisclosed amount to become the joint owner and operator of the Australian domain name marketplace - www.netfleet.com.au
Netfleet founder, David Lye, said that the investment should help to grow the marketplace, which already has over 10000 Au domain names listed for sale.
Read more
No Internet future for TABCorp ‘Trackside’
The Victorian government’s gambling regulators are clever people.
They didn’t stop ASX listed gaming giant - TABCorp – from offering Victorian punters the option of betting on a new ‘simulated’ racing game, called Trackside.
But they guaranteed Trackside would never become popular. And now they've almost certainly ruled out any Internet future for wagering on virtual horse-racing
games like Trackside. This is how they did it?
Read more
Local online payment gateway, eWay.com.au, reports 47% annual growth
Matt Bullock is the founder and CEO of the Canberra-based business said to be
“the major payment gateway in Australia for online retailers” – eWay.
eWay has undoubtedly grown rapidly over the ten years since it first set up operations. Even the global financial crisis isn't stopping its growth.
“We’re just not seeing it in our business” Bullock told eCommerce Report this week.
Read more
PayPal reports some online sales categories up this Xmas
PayPal’s Australian managing director, Andrew Pipolo, has reported that at least some sales categories are doing OK online
this Xmas, even if not all.
The first two weeks of Xmas are usually the busiest two weeks of the year, said Pipolo, and the early indicators are that this year is no
different in that respect.
However the current economic conditions appear to have changed what people are buying.
Read more
Mastercard blames RoseOnly for spike in online card fraud
Mastercard’s Australian chief, Albert Naffer, has blamed Sydney online florist, RosesOnly, for a spike in last year’s official statistics for
online credit-card fraud.
Card not present (CNP) fraud jumped from 38.6 cents to 50.2 cents in every $1000 worth of transactions in the statistics for the year to June 2008.
Online fraud is thought to have been responsible for the largest part of the jump, which saw overall payments fraud up more than 20% during the year.
Read more
Doubts over claimed 70% sales increase for eCorner online stores
John Debrincat, the Sydney based owner of online shopping software vendor- eCorner, said this week that
Australian businesses using his software has grown their sales 70% over the past year.
He also claimed average order values at the 170+ local businesses were up 30%.
But regrettably, eCommerce Report has significant doubts over the accuracy of Debrincat’s claims.
Read more [subscribers only]
Reserve Bank of Australia to regulate ATM fees
Customers of Australia’s big four banks should soon see a dramatic reduction in transaction fees on withdrawals from
other banks’ ATM’s.
But a Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decision to regulate the ATM system announced yesterday could also see big hikes in fees for using non-bank ATMs,
and particularly in rural and regional areas.
Read more
DStore.com.au sales up despite global financial crisis
Australia’s specialist online retailers are certainly being affected by the Global Financial crisis but sales appear not to be falling as much
as traditional main-street, bricks and mortar retailers.
Brisbane headquartered Dstore, is one of Australia’s largest and best-known on-line department store operators.
Read more
Domain name regulator - auDA - inventing fake complaints?
Queensland’s Supreme Court has apparently been told that Australia’s domain name regulator, au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA),
has been inventing complaints so that it can strip people of their domain names.
Details of auDA’s alleged actions were published on a number of local domain name blogs last week based on a statement
released by Melbourne headquartered domain name registrar, Domain Directors.
Read more
VISA monopoly deals at ANZ Stadium, Sydney Cricket Ground illegal says ACCC
VISA’s plan for a 3 year monopoly on contactless cards at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium in Sydney has been deemed illegal by competition regulator,
the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
So too has a plan for Macquarie Bank issued VISA cards at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Read more
Aussie online business owners report strong growth despite Global Financial Crisis
The Global financial crisis may be hitting US online businesses badly, but local online business owners are still claiming very strong growth.
Kristina Karlson from Kikk.k, and Larry Bloch, from NetRegistry are cases in point.
Read more
Big turnaround in finances puts AuDA Domain Name regulator in the red
A turnaround of more than half a million dollars in its financial situation over the last year has seen Internet domain name regulator –
Au Domain Administration Ltd - reporting a small loss for the financial year 2007/8.
Read more
JCPenney Australian onlineshop lasts less than 3 months
Why would venerable US department store retailer - JC Penney - pull the pin on its Australian online store less than 3 months after it opened?
Was the business model flawed? Were shipping and handling costs uncompetitive? Or was it more that US sourced goods were no longer price
competitive because of the collapse of the Aussie dollar? Or was it just because of the shocking collapse of the US economy?
Those are questions for which all local online merchants are very keen to see answers.
Read more
ANZ claims 5000 customers for Money Manager in first month
ANZ Head of Online Banking, Sam Plowman, says more than 5000 people have signed up to its new Money Manager service since it was launched in t
he middle of last month.
He said that the service, which is only in beta or testing mode, is seeing a “continual flow of new registrations every day” and that without any marketing.
As we reported last week, eCommerce Report found that to use the ANZ service we had to give the ANZ the PIN number and security code of our NAB account.
So clearly there are security and privacy questions about the ANZ’s new account aggregation service.
Read more
Shout.com.au sold for $1000 at TRAFFIC conference auction
Demand for premium Aussie domains was decidedly soft at the auction held as part of the TRAFFIC conference on the Gold Coast last week.
A listing of the sales results posted on the web at a blog site shows that none of the au domains on sale sold for more than $US500 and many failed to even attract a bid.
It wasn’t as if the names weren’t high quality, or the target prices were offputting.
Read more
New ANZ online services raises security, legal questions.
Yesterday I gave the security codes and PIN numbers for my NAB credit-card account to the ANZ.
I hope that doesn’t mean I’ve breached my contract with the NAB.
But if I have then its certainly the ANZ’s fault. Because they are inviting customers of any bank, and not just ANZ customers, to give up their account security codes and passwords
to their new online service.
Read more
2.15% of European online shoppers are Australians
Australians are adventurous online shoppers.
They’ll buy from just about anywhere and indeed new data from Germany’s Deutsche Bank suggests that 2.15% of European online shoppers are, in fact, Australians.
Tobias F. Hauptvogel, Head of Marketing & Communications at Deutsche Card Services GmbH told eCommerce Report that
“2.15% of all non-European retail shoppers come from down under.
Read more
Australia’s online ad spend up 9% to $450million in Sept qtr 2008
Australia’s online ad spend up 9% to $450million in Sept qtr 2008
Australia’s spend on advertising online continued to grow strongly in the three months to September 2008.
At an estimated total of some $451million, the total spend was up 9% on the quarter to the end of June.
Read more
Australia bludging, not pulling its ecommerce weight, says visiting US lobbyist
Steve Del Bianco, CEO of the US e-commerce lobby group, Netchoice, has called on Australia
to stop bludging and start pulling its weight on the great Internet and ecommerce
issues of the day.
The provocative allegation appears to have been deliberately devised as part of a successful PR campaign to get publicity for Del Bianco's visit down-under this week,
where the US lobby group is apparently trying to open an Australian chapter.
Del Bianco told the Australian newspaper’s Fran Foo that Australia hasn’t been pulling its weight in building and shaping the future of the Internet and ecommerce and needed to play more of a
role in the major international forums.
Read more
New national online marketplace for taxi licenses
Melbourne taxi operators are now not the only ones to have a simple, safe and inexpensive online
service allowing them to buy and sell licenses.
With the opening of a new national online marketplace at www.nlx.com.au, operators in other places
now also have the chance to buy, sell and lease licenses.
Prices for Melbourne metropolitan licenses are typically around the half a million dollar mark, each.
Read more
NT government will ask Lasseters to surrender online gaming license
ASX listed gaming operator Lasseters Corporation Limited will be required to hand back its
Northern Territory government licenses once the customers of its failed online sportsbook and
casino businesses have all been paid out.
NT government officials confirmed yesterday that Lasseters won’t be allowed either to keep the
licenses, or to sell them, once the closure of the businesses has been finalised.
Read more
Australian e-commerce laws to be updated for UN e-contracts convention
Federal, state and territory governments are planning slight changes to their ecommerce laws so that
Australian can sign-on to a UN legal convention.
That’s the long and short of a 36 page discussion paper released by the Australian Attorney-General
– Robert McLelland MHR - this week.
Read more [subscribers only]
TiVo promises online shopping for March 2009 - but is it credible?
TiVo owners could be doing their grocery shopping online by as early as March next year.
But then again, they might not.
TiVo’s Australian chief executive, Robbee Minicola, has been widely quoted in the Australian media
making some huge promises.
They included a free movie from Blockbuster Video each week and access to a catalogue of 100 movies by
March 1 next year.
Read more
Victorian government in about face over online betting exchanges
A few short years back the government of Australia’s second-most populous state was adamant that
online betting exchanges like Betfair were the work of the devil.
It strongly supported a campaign by the monopoly Victorian tote operator, ASX listed TABCorp,
against the Tasmanian governments proposed grant of a gaming license to UK betting exchange
operator Betfair.
But this week the Victorian government invited registrations of interest in a wagering and betting
license post the expiry of its current deal with TABCorp in 2012.
Read more
ACMA report shows more than half of Australian Internet users now shop online
A new report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) says that more
than half of Australian Internet users now shop online.
“One of the main changes to consumer behaviour as a result of the internet is the willingness of
consumers to engage in commerce online” said Chris Chapman, ACMA’s chairman.
Read more
Australian sites exempt from new PayPal gambling ban
As long as they get pre-approval from PayPal, Australian betting and gaming sites will be exempt
from a new PayPal ban due to come into effect on November 5th.
Australian on-line shops are also unlikely to be affected by a new PayPal ban on some prize-
winning competitions.
Read more
Could Carsales.com.au really be worth $1billion?
What price carsales.com ltd?
Could runaway Australian online success story, Carsales.com ltd really be worth $1billion?
Certainly that’s the valuation that was being placed on the company earlier this year according to a
story in the Australian newspaper this week.
Read more
UBank offers instant messaging as contact option for users
Now that all Australian bank deposits are government guaranteed the special opening offer for the
National Australia Bank’s (NAB) new online and phone banking service - UBank - is looking very
attractive indeed. Rates of 8% for a three month or 7% for a twelve month term deposit are nearly
double the rates offered by the NAB itself for similar sized deposits.
The high rates were only available til the end of October but UBank, which launched earlier this
month, has also brought another innovation into the direct-banking marketspace, namely instant-
messaging.
Read more
Hyro survives Lehman Bros collapse
Listed Australian web-developer and digital services company, Hyro, has escaped a potential
disaster arising from the collapse of US investment banker Lehman Brothers.
As we recently reported, the company, which boasts a raft of blue-chip clients, had owed
Lehman’s $20million through a convertible note due for repayment in 2010.
Read more
Intabill to begin operating at home in Australia next year.
Few Australians know much about Brisbane based e-commerce and Internet payments gateway,
Intabill. But it claims to be “one of the world’s top ten payments processors” with more than 4000
clients in over 70 countries around the world.”
Indeed Intabill says it is now processing hundreds of
thousands of transactions a month and looking to grow to 1 million a month this year.
And, according to company spokesman, Gerard Reilly, from BBS public relations, Intabill is planning
to extend its operations to Australia next year.
Read more
Betfair gets OK for mid-race online punting
Licensed on-line wagering operator, Betfair, is now offering punters the ability to bet during the
running of a race, and indeed, right up until the finish line.
Known as “in the running” , this type of online betting has become extremely popular in Europe and is
now said to account for as much as 20% of all wagering on horse-racing at betting exchanges..
Read more
eBay cuts global workforce by 10%, buys Bill Me Later for $US945million
Global online auction giant, eBay, has announced a 10% cut in its global workforce
at the same time as announcing the purchase of two Danish classifieds sites and US online payments service, Bill Me Later..
Around 100 full-time jobs are to go along with a smaller number of temporary and other positions.
"We are making aggressive moves to strengthen our leadership positions in e-commerce and payments to competitively position our company for long-term growth," said
John Donahoe, eBay Inc.'s president and chief executive officer.
Read more
Banks obliged to fix Internet banking mistakes under proposed new EFT Code of Conduct
Making a mistake with account numbers when using Internet banking to ‘pay anyone’ should become easier to fix under proposed changes to Australia’s EFT Code of Conduct.
This is one of a number of proposals outlined in a new industry consultation paper released by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Other proposals include extending the scope of the code to cover mobile banking and BPay.
Read more
Growth in US online advertising levels off
New figures released yesterday show that the US online advertising spend is no longer growing, even if the spend total is still at record highs.
According to the latest Interactive Advertising Bureau report, total Internet advertising revenues for the second quarter of 2008 were slightly lower than revenues
for the first quarter, around 0.3% lower.
Spending on classified advertising in particular, continued to be weak, and indeed the total spend on Internet classifieds in the first half of 2008 in the US was...
Read more
Finance sector ecommerce networks critical to system stability
Australia’s financial system, as in the rest of the world, relies heavily on ecommerce networks that are
little known outside their own industry. Some of these are privately-owned, some publicly-owned and some co-operatively owned by the industry.
Perhaps the most important of these ecommerce networks are those operated by Austraclear, the Australian Payments Clearing Association, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Tele-communication (SWIFT).
If any of these ecommerce network services were to experience even a temporary failure, the potential consequences in today’s nervous marketplace would likely be catastrophic.
Ordinary businesses would find it impossible to operate normally and many would find it impossible to operate at all.
Conversely, as long as these networks keep operating, a catastrophe will be averted, even if the global melt-down continues to spell disaster for individual financial institutions
Read more
Lehman's collapse leaves Hyro re-structuring in doubt
It seemed too good to be true and, in retrospect, it was. A deal to re-structure the debt of Hyro Limited, a publicly listed company and
one of Australia’s biggest e-commerce players with more than 500 employees and a raft of blue-chip clients, such as Rabobank, the RACV, QBE, Network Ten etc, is now in doubt.
The deal was announced earlier this year and was going to swap most of Hyro’s existing $20million debt to US investment bankers Lehman Brothers for a 38% shareholding.
Read more [subscribers only]
Seek.com expands to Brazil, Malaysia, China
Australia’s largest online jobs advertiser – SEEK Limited, has announced further international expansion on the back of a strong profit performance.
For the latest financial year SEEK reported a healthy $76million after tax profit, up 38% on the previous year.
Revenues were growing strongly and were up 34% on the previous year.
Commenting on the results, joint CEO Paul Bassat said that “Growth in the Australian and New Zealand employment business has been driven by ongoing migration from print to online.”
He added that the company continues to dominate the local market.
Read more [subscribers only]
ACCC shuts down rogue Australian e-tailer www.designerbrandoutlet.com
Federal Court orders have frozen the bank accounts of the two Australians named in connection with
rogue online merchant – designerbrandoutlet.com - Bindert (Ben) Kloosterman, and Xin Fang (Lucy)
Shi.
And both national and international channels have been set up to assist DBO’s victims claim
compensation.
Read more
Serial domain name pest ‘Lord Oxford’ once more costs Macquarie Bank
A Federal Court has once again found sometime Northern NSW resident, and serial domain name
pest, David Seagle, to have inappropriately registered names relating to Macquarie bank for which he
has no legitimate claim.
Seagle’s serial pest status is undeniable.
According to the court records, the list of companies who’ve previously taken action to strip Seagle
of domain names at the World Intellectual Property Organisation Arbitration includes...
Read more
Lasseters online gaming business runs out of luck.
Online casino and sports betting operator, Lasseters, seems to have run out of luck.
Continuing financial losses have seen its shares suspended from trading on the Australian
Stock Exchange.
So what happened to the run of good luck that made the company the world’s first
government licensed online casino operation, and gave it an online sports-bookmaking
license from the Northern Territory government?
Read more
TABCorp to open new online gaming site – Luxbet.
LUXBET.com will be the web address of a new service from listed Australian on-line wagering giant,
TABCorp set to begin on 1st October.
Built on a book-making license issued by the Northern Territoty
government, and the Sportsbook online business of NSW bookie- Bill Hurley, TABCorp is hoping to
win a share of an industry estimated to earn more than $4billion in revenues this year
Read more
AusRegistry to be offered 4 year extension to contract?
Registry operator for the Au domain, Melbourne based AusRegistry, is likely to be offered a 4 year
extension on its current contract due to expire on 30 June 2010.
A panel of industry experts set-up by industry regulator, Au Domain Administration Ltd, has
recommended the extension in its interim report on industry competition models.
It appears the auDA panel believes that allowing AusRegistry to avoid a competitive tender,
and moving well ahead of time to extend its contract is justified because...…
Read more [open access]
Another new .au auction site opens up as reid.com.au sells for $14,300
Nameseek.com.au is the fourth dedicated .au auction site to open up since the July 1st reforms and
its opening comes as the local market finally starts to show some evidence of life.
James Wester is the new owner of nameseek.com.au and he is no stranger to domaining and entrepreneurial
online activities.
His online business ventures and web-sites include ....
Read more [open access]
auDA settles FedCourt claim by Reclusive Melbourne Internet Entrepreneur
A reclusive Melbourne Internet entrepreneur has ended his two year legal battle against
Australia’s domain name regulator, Au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA)
auDA agreed to settle his claim, on the eve of a 3 day Federal Court action that was
scheduled to begin on the 1st of September.
AuDA agreed to release his domain names but got a confidentiality agreement as part of the
settlement. Even so, in this exclusive report, we can reveal that the man involved is…
Read more [subscribers only]
Chip not used in Woolworths new Everyday Money credit card
Customers will still need to swipe their new Woolworths credit-cards at supermarket
checkouts, even though the cards have an in-built chip and support MasterCards’ ‘PayPass’
contactless technology.
A Woolworths spokesman has confirmed to eCommerce Report that....
Read more [now open acess]
First Million dollar Australian domain names up for sale
Two of the most valuable Australian domain names yet to come up for sale have now hit the market.
And the asking price is $1million each.
They're listed on one of the three new domain name aftermarket sites that have emerged since the restrictions on selling Australian domain names
were lifted on 1st July. But if you're interested you'll have to act quickly because the auctions end...
Read more [now open access]
You’ll pay more if you choose PayPal says Reserve Bank.
You’ll pay more if you choose to pay by PayPal. That’ll be the result of a Reserve Bank of
Australia (RBA) initiative allowing Australian merchants to surcharge for PayPal transactions.
Currently, PayPal rules prohibit businesses from recovering the extra costs of PayPal
transactions by adding them on to the price.
Read more
Proof that Australia's big retailers are online dummies
by Stewart Carter
Online smarts are conspicuously lacking at some of Australia’s largest retailers and
particularly at Safeway and Myer.
Myer is a big department store operation in downtown Melbourne.
Coles sold it to private
equity interests Newbridge Capital a year or two back for in excess of $1billion.
So you’d expect that there’d be a similar big effort invested in their online
presence. But in fact...
Read more
PayPal sets 2nd June as cut off date for refunds to customers of failed eBay seller - EBS international
eBay has confirmed that the 2nd of June will be the cut-off date in deciding
which customers of the failed eBusiness Supplies International (EBS) may be
eligible for a refund from PayPal.
PayPal Australia managing director, Andrew Pipolo said in a statement
released to eCommerce Report yesterday that this would cover “the vast
majority of affected customers.”
Read more
Whatsonsale.com.au targets shoppers who hunt for specials.
Whatsonsale.com.au is gearing up for a 1st of September re-launch as an online service targeting shoppers
who love specials and sales.
The site is already up and visitors are invited to sign-up to get emails from both online and traditional
retailers promoting their specials and sales.
Read more
Safeway.com.au to test new rules on selling Australian domain names
Another marketplace for trading used Australian domain names has opened its doors, and
with safeway.com.au up for sale through its service, is attracting some attention.
Located at www.domaintradingpost.com.au, the marketplace is operated by an officially accredited
domain name registrar, Melbourne based Discount Domain Name Services
(www.ddns.com.au).
Read more
Sydney Swans sign-on for IMG eCommerce system
With the Sydney Swans now a client, sports management company, IMG, has some 3000+ users for the ecommerce systems developed by its
IMG eCommerce division.
The Sydney Swans are using IMG eCommerce's clubsonline.com.au system.
Others include some of the nation's best known teams and clubs.
They include the AFL premiership contenders this year, the Hawthorn 'Hawks' Football Club, the Carlton Football Club, National Soccer 'A' League team
- Melbourne Victory, and many more.
Read more
UK men identified as Olympic ticketing scammers
A fake Olympics ticketing web-site at www.beijingticketing.com has now been taken down, but not before fleecing Australians of tens and perhaps even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But whilst the site’s claimed US business address has turned out to be unoccupied,
evidence is mounting that the scammers are in fact associated with online sports ticketing operations - www.theonlineticketshop.com
and www.xclusiveticket.com
Read more
PayPal claims "no refund liability" as eBay Platinum Power Seller goes bust
PayPal's claimed security benefits are being severely tested in the wake if the failure of one of eBay Australia's biggest
sellers, EBS International Ltd.
Said to be the seventh largest merchant on eBay Australia, the business is now in administration leaving a large number of
customers out of pocket.
Read more
Online sales up 37% in the first half of 2008
A new study commissioned by UK online retailing group, IMRG, has found that UK online sales are up 38% on last year.
The survey, carried out by consultants Capgemini - showed that sales on the Internet in the first six months of 2008
totalled an estimated 28.5billion pounds sterling.
Read more
Lasoo online catalogue losses continuing
In a show of confidence in the long-term future of its Lasoo on-line catalogue business,
listed Australian company, Salmat, has apparently increased its spending on advertising the site at www.lasoo.com.au.
Last Friday Salmat told the Australian Stock Exchange that net profits for the latest year would be around $11-13million,
partly due to an estimated $7million in losses from Lasoo.
Read more
Bill Express related companies continue to fall
OnQ Ltd, the effective holding company for the failed Bill Express and related businesses, including the Bopo pre-paid VISA
debit card Cards,has finally itself gone into administration.
A formal announcement was filed with the Australian Stock Exchange on Monday and a number of associated companies,
including Technology Business Systems, OnQ Technologies and Motorlink Systems have also reportedly gone into administration.
Read more
Credit-card.com.au auction hits six figures. But is it dodgy?
Bidding on the domain name creditcard.com.au reached $101,000 at
www.domainshed.com.au last week before the auction was pulled and started again from scratch.
So there are clearly serious doubts over the integrity of the auction.
Chris Dutton, from Bean Media confirmed to eCommerce Report that he owns the domain name.
Read more
Bankers move on to the board at Hyro
Listed Australian digital services company, Hyro Ltd, is soon to be 38% owned by the troubled US investment bankers, Lehman Bros.
A deal announced to the Australian Stock Exchange last week will see Lehman Bros get $3million in cash from Hyro and continue to hold a convertible note over Hyro shares.
Read more
Bill Express creditors facing total loss
Creditors of the failed bill payment company, Bill Express are facing a total loss.
That was the message administrators PPB, gave to a creditors meeting in Melbourne last week.
Even worse, the meeting was told that there isn’t even enough cash left in the business to pay the administrators costs.
Read more
CUSCAL forced to kill-off BoPo VISA pre-paid debit
Australia’s first VISA pre-paid debit card, the so-called BoPo (BuyOnlinePayOnline) card is set for the scrap-heap.
Anyone with a BoPo card has until the 15th of August to access their funds. After that, they’ll have to apply for a re-imbursement to the issuers,
credit union services business - CUSCAL.
Read more
Bill Express International, BoPo card still alive in Singapore?
Surprisingly, it seems that Bill Express may still be alive outside Australia.
Certainly the Singaporean operation still appears to be alive, with the web-site at www.bopo.com.sg still operating and
still touting various bopo related solutions, including a travel card, a loyalty card and a school payment card known as
mycampuscard.com
Read more
eBay abandons PayPal monopoly plan, withdraws ACCC application
eBay has abandoned its attempts to enforce a PayPal monopoly within its Australian online market-place.
An announcement on eBay's web-site said that
"eBay will continue to allow all existing payment methods on eBay.com.au."
It said that eBay had withdrawn its notification to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, "to stop any further confusion and disruption in the eBay community."
However the company said it will continue with the new policy implemented in mid-May making it compulsory for all sellers to offer PayPal.
ACCC rejects eBay’s plan for PayPal monopoly
eBay’s plans for www.ebay.com.au to become a PayPal-only zone had a setback at the hands of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last week.
In a detailed, 39 page notification, the ACCC said it had concluded that eBay’s plan had “substantial anti-competitive detriments” and that these “outweigh any public benefit.”
more?
ACCC action underlines reality that PayPal is eBay’s future
eBay’s application to the ACCC for official endorsement of its plan to make its Australian online marketplace a PayPal only zone would appear to have backfired in a big way.
more?
Questions mounting over new government EFTPOS welfare card
There are previous few details available about the government’s new Centrelink EFTPOS debit card for welfare recipients, and certainly many questions about it still unanswered.
more?
Marketers get access to electoral roll?
Changes to Electoral Act regulations last year have given marketers direct and online access to voters’ details on the Australian Electoral Roll.
more?
Au domain aftermarket slowly emerging
Instant riches for au domain name owners have so far failed to materialize in the wake of the new rules that came into effect on June 1st allowing au domain names to be traded.
But a number of new web-sites have sprung up hoping to cash-in on the change in rules.
more?
Sensis adds auctions to Trading Post online
After years of decline and neglect, Telstra subsidiary - Sensis, has finally added online auctions to its Trading Post classifieds service.
more?
OZtion sold in $2million deal
Local online auction site OZtion has attracted a large number of new users recently, many of them disgruntled with eBay.com.au
And now it has also attracted a new owner - listed company, Jumbuck Entertainment.
more?
New statistics show Australian card fraud is at very low levels
Credit and charge card fraud (that is, signature permitted and card-not-present) increased from 36.9 cents to 44.5 cents in every $1,000.
more?
NSW pricing regulator backs Cabcharge concerns
A 10% surcharge levied by Cabcharge on fares collected through its payment system have been flagged as a competition concern by the NSW pricing regulator, the Independent Pricing and Review Tribunal (IPART).
more?
In-Brief: Shane Warne online poker, Pay TV gambling strikes parliamentary opposition
Shane Warne is the front-man for a new online poker service from listed British company - 888.
Pay TV gambling operator Two Way Interactive has
run into opposition in the Australian parliament.
more?
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