Australian eCommerce Network e-commerce seminars, services and resources

Meetings (2007)
18th April (Onlineshop2007 conference)

Meetings (2006)
15 December (Smart cards roundtable)
17 November (Profit from Payments Reform Seminar)
20 October (Online Advertising Round Table)

Meetings (2005)
27 October (Search Engine Optimization)
10 August (Online Identity)
26 July (Payment Systems Reform)
17 May (Sportsbetting)

Meetings (2004)
10 Nov (Card Security for Online Merchants)
13 July (Payment Systems Reform)
25May (Visa Debit)
30March (Spam control and management)

Meetings (2003)
5 November (EFTPOS Futures)
29 October (EFTPOS Futures)
27 August (Indonesian ecommerce)
18 March (Broadband)

Meetings (2002)
9 April(Melbourne:eBilling)
30 April (Sydney:Patents)
4 June (Melbourne:PKI)
18 June (Sydney:PKI)
30 July (Adelaide,with NOIE/ACS)
6 August (Melbourne/with NOIE)
27 August (Sydney,eBilling)
15 October (Melbourne, new services) 3 December (Melbourne, eCommerce & the Web)

Meetings (2001)
10 April
23 May
7 August
4 September
11 September
2 October
4 December

Meetings (2000)
15 March
17 May
13 Sept
8 November
13 December

Meetings (1999)
7 July
4 August
8 Sept
27 October
8 December

Meetings (1998)

Bill Express collapse causing mayhem, disaster spreading
Newsagents aren’t the only businesses affected by the spreading disaster from the financial collapse of listed Australian company, Bill Express.
Voluntary administrators - PPB - were called in on the 8th of July and have since advertised Bill Express various businesses for sale.
But even though the company booked just over $1 billion in revenues last year, its collapse appears to have been almost total.
Newsagents have beenthe most immediately affected as thousands of them had signed up to Bill Express now defunct bill payment and collection service.
Also affected have been hundreds of local government agencies and utilities whose bills had been payable using the Bill Express’ service.
In terms of dollar amounts, however, the biggest commercial losers from the Bill Express collapse may be the mobile phone carriers, Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, Virgin and Three. All had been pulling hundreds of millions in revenues each year from sales of pre-paid cards through the Bill Express network.
But the list of those affected is long and spreads well beyond those mentioned in the daily press.
Credit union organization, CUSCAL, for example, is now dealing with awkward questions about the bopo Visa pre-paid debit card CUSCAL it has been issuing for Bill Express.
CUSCAL has promised all bopo funds are secure, but it may nonetheless be facing some losses arising out of Bill Express failure.
A statement issued by CUSCAL on Friday 11th July suggests that cardholders may have trouble getting access to any funds they deposited in to Bopo accounts after 3rd July. Its not known how much is at risk although Bill Express parent company - On Q Group Limited- reported $7million in Bopo revenues for the half year to December 2007.
Other financial institutions are also dealing with the after-effects of Bill Express collapse. The ANZ bank is reportedly facing a $50million plus loss as a result of the collapse.
Not only has ANZ lost money in the company, but it is now struggling with the task of replacing merchant facilities it had been providing to thousands of Australian newsagents via Bill Express terminals.
Now that Bill Express terminals are no longer working, the ANZ is reportedly rushing replacement EFTPOS terminals to thousands of newsagents on a 3 month rent free basis.
But many newsagents are reported to be considering other EFTPOS and bill payment facilities offers, with the Australian Newsagents Federation apparently recommending an alternative offer from the St. George bank.
Even petrol retailers are being affected.
Motorlink Systems, operator of the Motorlink charge card accepted at Shell, Caltex and BP petrol stations was part of the On Q/Bill Express group
At least one of these petrol retailers is now no longer accepting the Motorlink card.

More information was previously available at various Bill Express web-sites but these are now all defunct. For the moment, however the On Q Group corporate web-site is still up and operational. [ 14th July]

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 posted yesterday 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.
[Posted July 4th]

Google 'outed' as author of anonymous ACCC submission opposing eBay's PayPal plans
Google has been revealed to be behind an 'anonymous' submission opposing eBay's plans for a PayPal monopoly Published on the ACCC's web-site last week at www.accc.gov.au the PDF's document's metadata clearly shows Google were the commissioning authors.
It isn't yet clear whether the mistake was made by the ACCC or Google.
But the 38 page submission is certainly the best argued and most professionally prepared of all the 500+ submissions. And it will provide the ACCC with perfect cover if, as seems likely, it decides to reject eBay's application.
[Posted June 2nd ]

How to sell your Au domain name.
Our recent seminars on 'How to sell your Au domain names drew expert audiences in both Melbourne and Sydney.
They revealed fascinating industry-insider secrets about the regulator, auDA, and its controversial and complicated rules on transferring domain names.
An exclusive account of proceedings at these fascinating seminars was published in Australia's ecommerce industry newsletter - eCommerce Report

OnlineShop 2007
onlineshop2007logo Details of the speakers at last years inaugural Online Shop 2007 programme in Melbourne on 18th April 2007 are at the conference web-site along with along with some photo's from the event.
Check out www.onlineshop2007.com

Australian eCommerce Directory
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About us.
Founded in 1998 the AeCN is head-quartered in Melbourne, capital city of Victoria, Australia's second most-populous state. Our main activity is ecommerce research and publishing with our eCommerce Report.
The report is now in its 15th year and is the industry's leading source of independently researched online business news and analysis.
We also produce workshops, seminars and conferences on contemporary strategic ecommerce issues. Network subscribers enjoy free access to these seminars as well as other benefits.
Current and past subscribers include such organisations as:
Telstra, NEC Business Solutions, BHPbilliton, Verisign Australia RMIT School of Business Cabcharge Australia Post Mastercard Australia.
If you'd like to join organisations such as these, and be part of our Australia wide network of ecommerce professionals and organisations, click here to subscribe now (credit-card required), or click here to learn more about what we offer.