Brazilian E-Commerce Revenue Quadruples!

Online buyers doubling every two years

E-commerce in Brazil, like many other Internet activities in that country, is maturing quickly. Between the first half of 2005 and 2008, e-commerce revenues as reported in e-bit's "Web Shoppers" study nearly quadrupled to reach BRL3.8 billion ($2.2 billion).

According to Valor Economico, in 2007 alone the market expanded by 43%. In terms of the number of individuals buying online, the figures are almost as dramatic, with 2.6 million buyers in 2003 rising to 9.5 million in 2007. More likely than not, adult Internet users in Brazil have purchased something online, according to a December 2007 study by Symantec.

Brazil's 79% of users who have purchased online is in the upper reaches of worldwide rates, comparable to such advanced Internet players as Japan (82%), the UK (79%) and Germany (78%). In contrast, only 63% of US Internet users have made an online purchase. Simply put, Brazilians who use the Internet tend to use it for everything, including e-commerce.

Online buyers in Brazil are huge media consumers. Books, magazines and newspapers ranked as the top e-commerce categories with a 17% market share in 2007, according to e-bit.

Almost one-half (49.47%) of Brazil's online buyers use a credit card to make their purchases, versus 39.06% who use a banking ticket to buy online. Other payment methods, including debit or electronic transfer, and payment on delivery, were each favored by less than 10% of respondents to an Ipsos Public Affairs survey.

Females, who make up almost one-half of Internet users in Brazil, are a key factor driving the explosion of e-commerce. A study from e-bit reported in Business News Americas found that online transactions by females increased nearly 10% since 2000.

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Citigroup passes debit card inspection

Citigroup yesterday said its debit card database on the mainland had passed inspection by the People's Bank of China, making it the third overseas lender eligible to issue yuan-denominated cards....

SHANGHAI - Citibank (China) Co Ltd. said it has won government approval to issue yuan-based debit cards to retail customers. Citibank said it has partnered with China Union Pay Data Services Co Ltd, the leading bank card third-party processor, to handle its mainland debit card transaction processing.

China Union Pay is the card-processing system backed by China's central bank. The launch of bank cards by locally-incorporated foreign banks has been delayed partly because of the issue of establishing data centers on the mainland. By partnering with China Union Pay, locally-incorporated foreign banks appear to have satisfied regulators.

Citibank said it will be in a position to launch debit cards in the near future. Citibank is the third foreign bank incorporated in China to receive approval to issue debit cards in China following Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered, which won approval last week.

In June 2007, the China Banking and Regulatory Commission said it was reviewing applications submitted by four foreign banks to operate card businesses. The four banks were Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of East Asia - the first batch of foreign banks that received regulatory approval in March 2007 to locally incorporate their mainland operations. Under WTO agreements, foreign banks in China are allowed to offer a full range of yuan services, including issuing yuan bank cards, once they are locally incorporated.

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PayPal "Nets" $602 Million in 2nd Quarter

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eBay reported second quarter 2008 financial results earlier today - saying that "PayPal had a strong quarter with $602 million in net revenue, an increase of 33% year-over-year. Net total payment volume (TPV) for the quarter was $14.93 billion, an increase of 35% year-over-year. Global active registered accounts increased to 62.6 million, representing 19% year-over-year growth."

44% of PayPal's payments revenue was from international. PayPal's transaction revenue rate was 3.89% - essentially flat from last year - while its transaction loss rate declined from 31 basis points to 27 basis points. PayPal's transaction processing expense rate increased slightly to 1.23%.

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Only Eight Percent of Americans are 'Very Confident' Their Personal Data is Safe With Retailers, Banks and Governments

Reduced Customer Satisfaction, Loss of Trust, Reputation Damage Cited by Consumers as Leading Business Consequences from Security Breach

Only an average of eight percent of Americans say they are very confident in the ability of U.S. retailers, government and banks to protect their personal information, according to a national survey commissioned by CA, Inc., and conducted by The Strategic Counsel. The CA 2008 Security and Privacy Survey was done as in follow-up to the 2006 survey.

Additionally, the consumer survey indicated that an average of 79 percent of American consumers cite loss of trust and confidence, damage to reputation, and reduced customer satisfaction as consequences of major security and privacy breaches suffered by the business or government organizations that they deal with.

According to the survey, the nature of the threats plaguing businesses has changed. While respondents report that the number of computer virus attacks, network attacks and denial-of-service attacks are all down an average of 11 percent in the 12 months preceding the 2008 survey, as compared against the data collected in 2006, the findings also reveal that the number of internal security breaches - those that come from within the organization - have increased from 42 percent in 2006 to 44 percent. Even more significant is the increase from 15 percent of the respondents reporting internal breaches in the 12 months preceding the 2003 survey to 44 percent today.

“U.S. businesses and governments recognize it doesn’t take much to shake consumer confidence, and they recognize the need to do all they can to assure consumers and constituents,” said Lina Liberti, vice president, CA Security Management. “Businesses used to worry about the hackers and thieves launching denial of service attacks from outside the firewall, now they recognize that their greatest danger lurks within the organization. The good news is that increasingly businesses are turning to identify and access management solutions to ensure that confidential data is safeguarded and available only to the people within the organization who genuinely need to have it.”

The survey indicated that the number of organizations planning to roll out identity and access management solutions in the next 12 to 18 months increased 11 percent, moving from 49 percent in 2006 to 60 percent in 2008.

Personal information at large

A number of Americans reported that they have fallen victim to theft of their personal information, like their Social Security Number or credit card information. Of those polled, 22 percent said they have experienced personal information theft and nearly half (48 percent) said they know someone who has had their personal information stolen.

Spending on data security
The CA survey also revealed that a significant majority of consumers feel that businesses and governments do not spend enough on improving online security and privacy:
72 percent think retailers do not spend enough on online security and privacy.
68 percent think the governments do not spend enough on online security and privacy.
58 percent think major financial institutions do not spend enough on online security and privacy.
Their suspicions are not unfounded: an average of 32 percent of U.S. security executives believe that the investment their company makes in security is inadequate.

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