1. TECHNOLOGY<br />Virtual Money<br />Does cyberchas have a future in Asia?<br />By Simon Fluendy in Hongkong<br />As shop-owners go,Hong kong’s Monty Wong is doing okay: Lots of Visitors ( 50,000 since he opened in August), 3,000 registered customers,and a product Line running From wine to Furniture to stationery – even Fast-Food delivery. In short .he has everything, that is,but a shop.<br />Just as well: A shop isn’t much use in the virtual market known as cyberspace.<br />That’s where Wong sells merchandise-and inssome cases receivespayment-all via the internet. He wonn’t discuss earn-ings,but it’s still early days.<br />Lan Henry,director of The Web Connection,which maintains the Web site that is Wong’s emporium ,says it’s relly just a ‘’ Live test ‘’ to see what doesn ‘t Wahtever the results,he reckons cybertrade is the way of the future.<br />So does Richard Crone vice-president of Cyber-cash, a Reston, Virginia-based firm developing a software architecture that would make Internet transactions safe. Crone cites analysts who project worldwide cybersales reaching $600 billion by the turn of the century-20% of gross world pro –duction-up from a mare $250 million last year . (By comparison,Visa alone racked up $ 802 billion in credit –card business las year.)<br />But analysists say there are lots of hurdles to overcome before consumer ‘’ e-trade’’ becomes as common as credit –card sales. And however popular cybertrade may prove, Asia wil take to it more slowly<br />Than the West, they sy.<br />The problem is partly technical. E-trde requires an Internet connection, which in turn requires a telephone line. Telephone penetration remains for lower in Asia than in the West ( 5-6 per 100 people against 12 ). But there is another problem that Internet transactions pose anywhere: How to transfer money in a way that’s secure for both buyer and seller? For now , e-trade anywhere is still conducted largely by credit : The user electronically ransmits credit-card detail to a retailer, along with an order.<br /> Critics say this system is inherently insecure . Visa, for example, wrns card holders not to send unencrypted card data but rather to mail details and carry out the transaction by phon. Moreover, many people have the skills to track electronic messages and inspect computer databases if those datbases are full of cradit-card numbers, the danger is obvious.<br /> Crone’s CyberCash, founded in 1994, is one of several consortia striving to make the Internet safe for commerce . It also hopes to see its own method of cash trans-fers adpted as the Internet standard .<br />‘’ This is not tecnological issue,’’ he sys.<br />‘’It’s more a challenge of building trust electronically with consumers. Techno-logically , we can secure the connection and payment.’’<br />In a CyberCash transactions ,encrypted paymen details pass from the con-sumer to the Internet retailer . The retailer then strips off the order details and forwards the payment section to CyberCash-without ever knowing the consumer’s credit-card number. CyberCash unwraps the the payment details from the Internat and forward them to the retailer’s bank over dedicated lines. The bank then forwards an authorization request to the consumer’s bank, which sends an approval or denial straight to CyberCash , which hands it on to the retailer. Sounds cumbersome,but the whole process takes only 15-20 seconds, says CyberCash.<br /> Crone envisions a surge in Internet marketing. He says he recently addressed a group of bankers in Bangkok aiming to Crack Americas’s huge financial-services market without opening offices there.<br />‘’ They intended to enter the U.S. market entirely through the Internet,’’ he says.<br /> The credit-card companies ar in on the Internetact too. Visa Internet and its bitter rival Mastercard have joined to crete SET , short for Secure Elektronoc Transaction. It’s a set of protocols that includes encryption and digital signatures and rules for using various digital signatures for credit-card issuers , consumers and retailers. SET is already being tested in Japan, Taiwan and Singapore.<br />