Electronic Commerce - ecommerce

  

In a few years, it might make more sense to call it simply “commerce."

Back when money was invented, there was probably a time when people referred to "money commerce" to distinguish it from barter, which at the time just got called "commerce." But eventually, money took over...and now "money commerce" would seem silly to say.

But we're not there yet with "ecommerce." Still, you're probably very familiar with it as a concept. It’s all the transactions you make online...all the buying that takes place with the exchange of electrons rather than the passing around of physical bills and coins.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What are the economics of Uber?0 Views

00:00

Finance Allah shmoop What are the economics of uber Ah

00:07

uber you've seen it The little you thing there Yeah

00:10

that designates it's an uber driver car Well from pretty

00:14

much nowhere in two thousand eight Uber today is a

00:17

big uber German for all over or everywhere so there

00:23

are two flows of economics to this now enormous company

00:25

One flow is about extra dough coming into their drivers

00:29

on a given trip a driver collects eighteen dollars forty

00:31

cents from the trip Uber gets twenty five per cent

00:33

of that money or four dollars sixty cents in this

00:36

instance anyway and the driver pockets the rest It was

00:39

a nine mile trip It cost the driver about a

00:41

dollar in gasoline and maybe figure another dollar in wear

00:45

and tear and insurance and maintenance and occasional vomit clean

00:48

up and well on that two dollars of expense The

00:50

driver then keeps eleven dollars eighty cents for her time

00:54

in gross profit Not a bad gig Getting three of

00:56

those rides in an hour and it sure beats flipping

00:59

burgers So that's one set of economics It's contractor work

01:03

for the drivers who by the way as contractors can

01:06

tax deduct a meaningful part of the cost of operating

01:09

their car Since it qualifies as a business expense it's

01:12

legit So then what about the four dollars sixty cents

01:15

too Hoover What was uber's expenses Toe Earn that four

01:18

sixty Well uber is basically a giant billing system at

01:22

art They track and bill and clear in calendar drive

01:24

units and make everything look all nice and pretty on

01:27

a spreadsheet So there was a big fixed cost to

01:30

initially build that giant database to track all of the

01:33

driving events But then once the database was built well

01:36

not a lot of expenses continue to Maine Chainat Uber

01:39

also had to recruit tons and tons and tons of

01:42

drivers like in a lot of cities That's their pinch

01:45

point They can't get enough human beings who need or

01:48

want the extra dough to just you know be around

01:50

quickly enough so that uber demand er's get serviced quickly

01:54

enough in that local area such that they don't either

01:57

Goto lift their hated comm editor of Uber for God

02:00

forbid call one of these yellow things Taxi That's what

02:03

it was What recruiting drivers who are a legal be

02:06

non convicted violent felons and see not suffering from extreme

02:11

halitosis or B o is not easy There's a whole

02:14

background checking process and all kinds of loitering and human

02:17

resource ing and other stuff that has to go into

02:20

this human filtration system All right well what other expenses

02:23

Well insurance is a biggie Never know when a driver

02:25

is gonna decide to take a shortcut through the Chicago

02:28

River there Then there's government regulation that keeps hitting him

02:31

or at least the threat thereof Read Mohr Lawyer Bills

02:35

Yeah so yeah a lot of elements to noodle here

02:37

But overall uber is doing just fine for itself In

02:39

fact weed you know have to give them five stars

Up Next

Finance: What is PayPal?
4 Views

What is PayPal? Wire us $20 to our PayPal account and we’ll tell you. Or just watch this video.

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)