电子商务(e-commerce)
全名electronic commerce
藉着网际网路（Internet）或其他电子网路来进行企业对消费者或企业对企业的商业活动，以及支持这些活动的内部组织交易。电子商务起源於供应者与其企业顾客之间订单或发票等企业文件的交换标准。这个标准肇始於1948～1949年的柏林封锁与空运。往後几十年中，各种不同的工业致力於这个体系，後在1975年公布第一个通用的标准。所产生的国家电子资料交换（electronic data interchange, EDI）标准毫不含糊，不仰赖任何特定的机器，而其弹性足以处理大部分简单的电子交易。电子商务如企业对企业的交易标准形式一样重要，它包含的活动广泛得多。例如，确保机密资讯的电子化传送是使电子交易持续成长的必要条件。企业常会部署私密的网路（企业网路〔intranet〕），以在公司内部分享资讯和进行合作，通常以所谓的「防火墙」（firewall）电脑防护系统隔离周遭的网际网路。企业也经常仰赖外部网路（extranet），即公司企业网路的延伸，允许合作企业连线至公司的内部网路一部分。现在流行一种叫做「虚拟公司」（virtual company）的公司组织新兴行业，这其实是公司的网路，每一家公司进行产品制造或提供服务所需的程序。
English version：
e-commerce
business-to-consumer and business-to-business commerce, as well as internal organizational transactions that support these activities, conducted by way of the Internet or other electronic networks. E-commerce originated in a standard for the exchange of business documents, such as orders or invoices, between suppliers and their business customers. This standard had its inception in the 1948-49 Berlin blockade and airlift. Various industries elaborated upon this system in the ensuing decades before the first general standard was published in 1975. The resulting national electronic data interchange (EDI) standard is unambiguous, independent of any particular machine, and flexible enough to handle most simple electronic transactions. As important as standard forms are for business-to-business transactions, e-commerce encompasses much wider activity. For example, secure electronic transfer of sensitive information is essential to the continued growth of e-commerce. Businesses often deploy private networks (intranets) for sharing information and collaborating within the company, usually insulated from the surrounding Internet by computer-security systems known as firewalls. Businesses also frequently rely on extranets, extensions of a company's intranet that allow portions of its internal network to be accessed by collaborating businesses. A new form of corporate cooperation known as a virtual company, which is actually a network of firms, each performing some of the processes needed to manufacture a product or deliver a service, has flourished.