commerce

People in English-speaking countries are targeted for identity fraud at twice the rate of many Europeans, according to a new study released by PayPal on Wednesday.

Ten percent of online shoppers in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada--not-surprisingly, places with high percentages of e-commerce transactions--reported being victims of identity fraud, compared with only 5 percent in France, Germany and Spain, the study conducted by Ipsos found.

The Germans had the lowest rate of identity fraud of the countries, with 3 percent reporting problems.

Meanwhile, the Germans were also found to be more cautious with their passwords. Only about … Read more

This post was updated at 2:20 p.m. PDT to include Amazon's announcement that it won't launch an upgraded Kindle until next year.

Amazon's third-quarter revenue was in line with analyst expectations, but e-commerce doesn't appear to be immune to the economic slump pounding offline and online retailers alike.

For the quarter ended September 30, Amazon reported $4.26 billion in revenues, up 31 percent compared with $3.26 billion in third quarter of 2007. The numbers came in on the low side of Amazon's forecasts from last summer. The company said revenue would … Read more

Online retail growth will slow for the first time this holiday season as a result of the weak economy, according to a new report from Forrester Research.

The market research firm estimates that $44 billion will be spent online by consumers during the holiday season; that's up 12 percent from last year, but it's the slowest rate of growth for online retail to date.

It's important to note that the Forrester report refers specifically to e-commerce, not to the hordes of people who show up at Best Buy at 5 a.m. for Black Friday deals. But … Read more

Hey, indie bands. Does MySpace Music's big focus on the major labels make you sad? iLike wants to hear from you--literally.

The "social music" company, best-known for its add-on apps for Facebook and iTunes, has partnered with music distribution start-up TuneCore so that unsigned artists can market their music through iLike and get royalties when it's streamed there.

TuneCore already lets independent artists sell their music through iTunes, Amazon MP3, and Rhapsody, which has a deal with iLike (and MTV and Yahoo).

It's not surprising that a company such as iLike would choose to make … Read more

WASHINGTON--With only five days left for President Bush to decide whether to sign into law a controversial copyright bill, business lobbyists and even the AFL-CIO are pushing for it to become law.

Most bills to expand copyright law are bipartisan--one aimed at file-swappers and prerelease movies in 2005 comes to mind--and the so-called Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act is no exception. Sens. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, and Arlen Specter, a Republican, are the sponsors, and it enjoys the support of the Recording Industry Association of America.

But the Pro-IP Act is unusual because the Bush administration threatened a veto … Read more

With the meltdown in the financial markets over the past several weeks and an economy that's in need of resuscitation, one Wall Street analyst cut his growth estimates for Internet advertising and e-commerce companies, according to a research note released Friday by Collins Stewart.

And as companies gear up to report their third-quarter financial results this month, investors should brace themselves for companies lowering their forecasts for future quarters, Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal wrote in his research note.

As a result, Aggarwal had this to say about his Internet advertising outlook:

Productivity application start-up Zoho is in a tough position: it has to compete with Google Apps. That hasn't stopped the company from pushing forward and trying new stuff.

Case in point: Zoho's Marketplace, which launched Tuesday. Through the Marketplace, Zoho users can make a buck or two off of applications that they built with Zoho Creator, the company's drag-and-drop application development tool.

If you've made an application in Creator, you can list it for sale in the Marketplace and charge a fee, if you want. Zoho doesn't take a commission from the sale of applications, … Read more

An e-commerce advocacy group is fuming over the retail industry's portrayal of online vendors as addicts and criminals and is demanding an apology.

NetChoice.org on Wednesday called for an apology from the National Retail Federation and Joseph LaRocca, NRF's vice president for loss prevention, after LaRocca told Congress on Monday that thieves who steal from retail stores are often driven to crime by the "addictive qualities" of online commerce.

LaRocca's comments came from the prepared testimony he gave during a hearing Monday of the House Judiciary's subcommittee on crime, terrorism, and homeland security. … Read more

Music giant Live Nation announced on Thursday that it has partnered with SMG, the operator of 216 stadiums, arenas, convention centers, and concert halls, in an agreement that lasts through 2011.

The announcement is in anticipation of Live Nation's ticketing service, which launches in January and will sell tickets for venues that Live Nation already represents as a promoter as well as third-party partners. Under the terms of the agreement, Live Nation will be the exclusive outlet for SMG's tickets; Live Nation expects the SMG deal to raise its potential ticketing volume by 25 percent.

Live Nation recently … Read more