Commerce, E-Commerce and m-commerce What comes next ZAKARIA MAAMAR In ancient times, people exchanged their goods and services to obtain what they needed(such as clothes and tools) from other people. This system of bartering com- pensated for the lack of currency. People offered goods/services and received in kind other goods/services. Now, despite the existence of multiple currencies and the progress of humanity from the Stone Age to the Byte Age, people still barter but in a different way. Mainly, people use money to pay for the goods they purchase and the services they obtain Commerce Notwithstanding the technologies that are involved, undertaking commerce can be ciated with one of the four types of exchange: bargaining, bidding, auctioning, and ing 3]. The first two types of exchange are bilateral and the last two types of exo re trilateral (that is, a third party intervenes) Bargaining involves one user that negotiates with a provider until an agreement between both is reached. First, the user looks for a provider, browses their products, and then negotiates with the provider for an agreement. If the negotiation fails, the user continues searching for other providers until an agreement with one of them is reached. Bidding involves one user and several providers. First, the user calls for bids Next,the user compares the offers that providers have submitted after receiving the call for bids. Finally, the user selects the provider that has made the lowest offer(that is, the offer that minimizes the e user's expense) Auctioning(English scenario) involves one provider, several potential users, and ne broker. First, the provider fixes the lowest price of the product. Through the broker, the provider advertises ducts and calls for auctions. Next. the dif- ferent users respond to the call for auctions by making offers to the broker. Act on the providers behalf, the broker selects the user who has made the highest offer regarding the first offer of the provider(that is, the user's offer maximizes ZAKARIA MAAMAR(zakaria. maamar@zu ac ae) is an associate professor at Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM December 2003/ol. 46. No. 12ve 25ICommerce, E-Commerce, and M-Commerce: What Comes Next? Zakaria Maamar In ancient times, people exchanged their goods and services to obtain what they needed (such as clothes and tools) from other people. This system of bartering com￾pensated for the lack of currency. People offered goods/services and received in kind other goods/services. Now, despite the existence of multiple currencies and the progress of humanity from the Stone Age to the Byte Age, people still barter but in a different way. Mainly, people use money to pay for the goods they purchase and the services they obtain. Commerce Notwithstanding the technologies that are involved, undertaking commerce can be asso￾ciated with one of the four types of exchange: bargaining, bidding, auctioning, and clear￾ing [3]. The first two types of exchange are bilateral and the last two types of exchange are trilateral (that is, a third party intervenes). • Bargaining involves one user that negotiates with a provider until an agreement between both is reached. First, the user looks for a provider, browses their products, and then negotiates with the provider for an agreement. If the negotiation fails, the user continues searching for other providers until an agreement with one of them is reached. • Bidding involves one user and several providers. First, the user calls for bids. Next, the user compares the offers that providers have submitted after receiving the call for bids. Finally, the user selects the provider that has made the lowest offer (that is, the offer that minimizes the user’s expense). • Auctioning (English scenario) involves one provider, several potential users, and one broker. First, the provider fixes the lowest price of the product. Through the broker, the provider advertises their products and calls for auctions. Next, the dif￾ferent users respond to the call for auctions by making offers to the broker. Act￾ing on the provider’s behalf, the broker selects the user who has made the highest offer regarding the first offer of the provider (that is, the user’s offer maximizes COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM December 2003/Vol. 46, No. 12ve 251 Zakaria Maamar (zakaria.maamar@zu.ac.ae) is an associate professor at Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. © 2003 ACM