France Telecom announced it has chosen Comapagnie des Machines Bull SA, 3Com Corp and Intershop Communications Inc as its partners to develop Telecommerce, an electronic commerce system they will offer internet service providers. Highly sensitive to Minitel service editors’ need for a secure means of moving their commercial transaction systems to the internet, as well as the need to stimulate the creation of more French web sites, Telecom opted for a branded turn-key offering rather than the as yet unproven shopping mall. The system will provide ISPs with 3Com network equipment, e-commerce software from German firm Intershop and Pop in a Box from Bull, for transaction security. Sites proposing e-commerce services with the system will display the label TeleCommerce Inside, guaranteeing secure electronic payments. Between now and 2001, electronic commerce on the internet in France should represent approximately $173m, compared with the $1.29bn realized today by mail order catalogues on Minitel, said Dominique Pasquet, director of e-commerce projects for France Telecom Multimedia, in a report in Les Echos. She stressed that the technology was aimed equally at small and medium-sized enterprises, and not strictly large companies.
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