CommerceNet is a

501(c)6 A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exempt from some federal income taxes. S ...

organization established in 1994 to promote

electronic commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. The organisation initially focused on industry-wide research and programs that have advanced the commercial use of the Internet.

History

CommerceNet pioneered some of the Internet industry's first milestones including secure transactions and XML messaging. The Silicon Valley-based coalition was backed earlier by companies like

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

and

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

, had set up an Internet shopping center allowing individuals and businesses to offer their wares and services via CommerceNet's easy-to-use software. The shopping service uses licensed security technology to protect credit card numbers from electronic theft. It got $6 million in TRP funding (Technology Reinvestment Project) from the federal government (US). The organisation was founded by Internet commerce pioneer

Jay Martin Tenenbaum Jay Martin "Marty" Tenenbaum is an American computer scientist and entrepreneur. He is noted for his early work in artificial intelligence and as an Internet commerce pioneer. Biography Tenenbaum attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog ...

. CommerceNet embarked on global studies including a controversial study released by CommerceNet and

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

. The study in 1998 found that the rapid increase of Internet users age 16 and older rose 16 percent in North America in nine months, and the number of online consumers jumped 40 percent over the same period. In Asia, CommerceNet was active in five major regions: CommerceNet China (Hong Kong), CommerceNet Japan, CommerceNet Korea,

CommerceNet Singapore CommerceNet Singapore is a not-for-profit organisation. It is part of the Palo Alto, California based global CommerceNet consortium of business partners that organises resources from the industry, plans and executes key strategies. CommerceNet ...

and CommerceNet Taiwan. CommerceNet Asia was credited to coordinate and published the first Pan-Asian E-Commerce Survey across national boundaries in 1999. The Survey Report was translated into Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

Selected historic milestones

* 1994: Founded. First public demonstration of an encrypted credit-card transaction in a web browser. * 1998: Founded CommerceNet Singapore. * 2005: CommerceNet helped co-found the

microformats Microformats (μF) are a set of defined HTML classes created to serve as consistent and descriptive metadata about an element, designating it as representing a certain type of data (such as contact information, geographic coordinates, events ...

community site.microformats.org
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Notes

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External links

CommerceNet home page

CommerceNet Singapore homepage
Information technology organizations based in North America Organizations based in California