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The Growth and Development of Online Commerce: Conclusion

By Sammy J. Chapman Jr.

Conclusion

The writing on e-commerce has evolved over the last few years from a focus on how internet tech giants like Amazon and Google operate to an assessment of their impact on society. Early works focused on distilling the visions of tech founders to determine the philosophies and practices that made these companies successful, and how other companies could adopt these strategies. Now that people realize how powerful these companies have become, more critical questions are arising about whether they are now too powerful: compromising democracy, destroying privacy, and diminishing the livelihoods of workers and creators. We have moved from an era of adoption for convenience to an economy reorganized by online commerce. We are left with a question: How do our political institutions and legal system respond to this revolution led by the private sector?