E-Commerce Vs. Social Networking

E-Commerce and i-series stuff from Apple started out a hype that is still not realized fully in all senses. The concept of taking business to the internet level has been old, and the early implementations started in the 90's.Then we had the ".com" boom of the 2000! By 2001-2002 around 75% dot coms in North America have been shut down the total percentage world wide should be around 60% at least. For more info do get to these urls:
http://www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html
http://www.witiger.com/ecommerce/dotcomfailures.htm
http://www.allbusiness.com/sales/internet-e-commerce/234152-1.html
I am not going by struct statistics as the point of concern is E-Commerce has not been so successful as Social Networking, going just by number of visits and by profits margins when put to similar evaluation conditions. Now another point that must be borne in mind id the various natures/operating models that E-Commerce has, for instance say B2B (Business TO Business) or B2C (Business TO Consumer)  or C2B (Consumer TO Business) and C2C (Consumer TO Consumer) models.
To get a brief overview:

• B2B (Business TO Business) 
• Business-to-business (B2B) describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between amanufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer.
• B2C (Business TO Consumer) 
• Business-to-consumer (B2C, sometimes also called Business-to-Customer) describes activities of businesses serving end consumers with products and/or services.
• C2B (Consumer TO Business)
• Consumer-to-business (C2B) is an electronic commerce business model in which consumers (individuals) offer products and services to companies and the companies pay them. This business model is a complete reversal of traditional business model where companies offer goods and services to consumers (business-to-consumer = B2C).
• C2C (Consumer TO Consumer)
• Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) (or citizen-to-citizen) electronic commerce involves the electronically-facilitated transactions between consumers through some third party. A common example is the online auction, in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers bid to purchase it; the third party generally charges a flat fee or commission. The sites are only intermediaries, just there to match consumers. They do not have to check quality of the products being offered.

Difference between Traditional Business/Commerce and E-Commerce/Business :

As evident from the image on the left, the two models are just the opposite. And that is what makes it entrepreneur friendly, look at the bottom, a dot com business, can theoretically started without any/minimal capital! Well of course not counting any venture capitalist for the capital would be wrong, but to get a person/organization to invest a dot com was more lucrative than traditional ones as they were a new horizon, theory (blackboards and ppts) showed astronomical growth in record time. And as time tested new theoretical models there was catastrophe! But today we are out of that state, passed through a recession/deep depression of 2007-2008-2009. Last two years have been literal nightmares! With real estate going for a toss in U.S, bad debts crippling banks and business houses to stock markets worldwide.
Look at the Social Networking sites now.The Social Media Revolution is already talked about much (see videos on the right pane/check out the previous entry), and it has taken the youth and aged alike, an epidemic in which everyone is bit by the SN-bug(Social Networking-Bug). Now these sites do generate revenue just by clicks, and by advertisements (mainly). Wait a second, advertisements ? Ads of what, taditional and i-series products, newer services  offered physically or virtually administered through the web. So isn't it a part of E-Commerce? I think so.
I believe we are going to the next steps of an evolution of mankind. We have successfully bridged the gap (as much as possible with technological knowhow that we have) between the virtual and the real.The various models as proposed in the early days still remain valid and are changing or molding themselves if not done already in innovative ways to create new e-commerce opportunities. Social Networking has been a hit and e-commerce is taking that to its advantage, by featured as well as "word of mouth" campaigns!
How did Social Networking sky rocket to the top? Firstly it is either cheap or absolutely free!! Now a service that does not entail shipping or travelling or physical delivery is ought to be cheaper by dimes than traditional services. Also take this for a thought, the ISD/STD charges for a standard phone call to home, old grand-parents or just relatives and friends separated geographically by huge distances, and the free skype/gmail/yahoo chat services and their cheap calling rates (thanks to VoIP technology). Chatting is an imporatant corner stone for boom of the Social Networking, add to it status updates or scrapbook facilities and small flash games! Whoa, a flurry of activities you can do sitting before a desktop or reclining with your laptop with a mug of coffee/tea in the lazy weekend afternoon. Instant friendship, say whatever you feel like may be deep hidden secrets, as the person you are chatting is a total stranger(may be on other side of the globe) and it gets easier to shed inhibitions/apprehensions that creep up even when among close friends!
Look at the e-commerce facilities now, you cannot touch and see the product in 3-D. It is easy to make a picture look lot better than the real counterpart, and business men being shrewd enough do that most of the times, is what people have in mind. This plays an important role as trust is one factor that cannot be ignored in any kind of business or transaction.
Another bottle neck for E-Commerce has been secure transactions in the virtual world. Not many banks had core banking back then, and customers in the third world/developing countries were not confident of the power credit cards come with, and how to keep the nuisance over over credit at bay! With time scenarios have changed and there is a rise in number of payment gateways, core banking implementations. People are recognizing the power of credit cards, and finding them helpful enough.Actually if you remain withing limits with self restraint, you can do more with credit cards.
Most of the E-Commerce sites are also in a bad shape, in terms of design and  navigability. A lot of things clutter up on the Home Page making it difficult for surfers to make enough sense out of it, and the initial heckle shuts off future business opportunities along with the present at times!
I am sure there can be a million ways to reject a new thing around the corner, but there must be a single way which will allow to make any new thing popular. Though e-commerce has been around the corner for 10 years it would be frugal to say it has not covered any ground! But surely it has a lot of potential as we advance to the next generation of the internet and software / hardware (say, surface computing, mobile commerce and computing e.t.c) and I am sure say 20/40 years down the line(hope global warming does not wipe us out by then, Amen!) e-commerce should be a primary mode of Business/Commerce as the social networking might venture into the world of Virtual Reality!!

And last but not the least ... I would like to know what your thoughts are?

Also this is my last post for the year 2009.

Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2010. Let's usher the new decade with new hope :)