The Impact of Semantic Web on E-Commerce

Authors: Karim Heidari

Abstract:

Semantic Web Technologies enable machines to interpret data published in a machine-interpretable form on the web. At the present time, only human beings are able to understand the product information published online. The emerging semantic Web technologies have the potential to deeply influence the further development of the Internet Economy. In this paper we propose a scenario based research approach to predict the effects of these new technologies on electronic markets and business models of traders and intermediaries and customers. Over 300 million searches are conducted everyday on the Internet by people trying to find what they need. A majority of these searches are in the domain of consumer ecommerce, where a web user is looking for something to buy. This represents a huge cost in terms of people hours and an enormous drain of resources. Agent enabled semantic search will have a dramatic impact on the precision of these searches. It will reduce and possibly eliminate information asymmetry where a better informed buyer gets the best value. By impacting this key determinant of market prices semantic web will foster the evolution of different business and economic models. We submit that there is a need for developing these futuristic models based on our current understanding of e-commerce models and nascent semantic web technologies. We believe these business models will encourage mainstream web developers and businesses to join the “semantic web revolution."

Keywords: E-Commerce, E-Business, Semantic Web, XML.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1331275

References:

[1] Grigoris Antoniou and Frank van Harmelen., "A semantic Web primer", MIT Press,2003
[2] Tanya Gupta PREM, "Reduction of price dispersion through Semantic E-commerce", paper present at semantic web workshop 2002 Hawaii, USA.
[3] Schahram Dustdar, "The realization of Semantic Web based ECommerce and its impact on Business, Consumers and the Economy", Paper presented at Vienna on April 26th 2006.