Email, an online invoice, and data that starts to outrun the warehouse

E-business, the planning report says, has come forward as something distinct from older forms of business, on the back of information and communication technology. It rests on internet and network infrastructure, and computerises work a firm already did; email and an online invoice are named as ordinary examples. Limits of place, time, and geography are eased in a sharp way. As the era of e-business arrives, information about customers and about firms is digitised quickly, and the firm’s core activity, the notes say, shifts from physical logistics toward the exchange of information. With the rise of next-generation industries such as big data and artificial intelligence, data becomes a more important field for a firm, and how it is gathered and used is treated as a coming competitive strength — for a business plan, for marketing, and for the care of customers. Trails of search and shopping on the internet are also named as information a firm may need.

Not a consultancy, but a room where a freelancer and a firm can meet

The model being offered is not an existing data consultancy. It is a platform where professional freelance analysts and firm clients can meet, and where analysis of online data can be provided. A platform business of this kind, the notes say, forms a space through a website and then builds the needed service and infrastructure; afterwards the work is mostly upkeep, so running costs can be relatively low. Two kinds of customer have to be secured: the freelancer and the firm, with smaller firms set as the main buyers. On the website people divide according to whether they will supply a data-analysis service or buy one.

A professional freelancer, the report argues, is not bound by one firm’s internal rules and can talk through an analysis more freely, according to the firm’s aims and preferences. Firms can compare prices and conditions, so competition can lead to a more reasonable fee. A freelancer’s work is rated, and that rating is tied to whether work continues, which is treated as a reason for stronger motivation and a deeper hold on the job. Both sides can also see market prices and terms on the platform, and so, the writer says, get past incomplete information. For a freelancer, running a business alone would mean higher costs and risk, and a hard hunt for clients; the platform is offered as a cheaper way to reach them. A freelancer looking for income can, in the notes’ sketch of a decision process, see on the platform who wants an analysis, and with what detail.

Fifteen percent of the job, a rating on both sides, and books from 2000 to 2003

To keep the quality of the analysis up, a rating mechanism is introduced for freelancers and for firms alike, and the platform’s service level is to be watched through it. Revenue is 15 percent of the whole transaction between freelancer and firm client, and that fee is shared differently according to the ratings on both sides and to loyalty to the platform.

The report’s background reading is left in the years it was written. Park Dong-hyun and others, at the Science and Technology Policy Institute, on the spread of e-business and a change in industrial innovation, 2001; Hwang Jong-sung and others, at the National Computerization Agency, on related technology and a roadmap, 2001; the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on digital conversion and a firm’s e-business success strategy, 2003; and Park Hae-young, in the Korea Economic Daily of 1 March 2000, citing a Samsung Economic Research Institute report that success in e-business turns on differentiation. Those are sources from 2000 to 2003, not a later official picture of the field. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. A class planning report for an e-business platform that would match professional freelance data analysts with firm clients, especially smaller firms.
2. A proposed fee of 15 percent of the whole transaction, shared differently by ratings and by loyalty to the platform, and a rating mechanism on both sides.
3. Background sources as the report lists them, left in their years: Park Dong-hyun and others, STEPI, 2001; Hwang Jong-sung and others, National Computerization Agency, 2001; Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 2003; Park Hae-young, Korea Economic Daily, 1 March 2000, citing a Samsung Economic Research Institute report.

Last updated: 14 November 2026