Customized Internet News Services Based on Customer Profiles

The rapid propagation of the Internet and information technologies has changed the nature of many industries through easy collection, analysis, and sharing of information. Rapid response and product customization are major concerns in their marketing and strategic planning. This is particularly significant in the industries that offer digital contents to their clients, such as consulting and news services. In this paper, a news recommendation system that allows a news service provider to analyze its customer profile and then produce customized news services is developed. An empirical study using actual news provided by the China Times shows that the recommendation system outperforms the traditional headline news compiled by the news editor in both objective performance indices and customer satisfaction

An Approach for Assessment of Electronic Offers

Internet and mobile technology enable businesses to invent new business models by applying new forms of organization or offering new products and services. In order to assess these new business models there has to be a methodology that allows identifying advantages that are caused by electronic and mobile commerce. The proposed approach builds upon the theory of informational added values that provides a classification of gains produced by information work. This theory is extended by the definition of categories of technology inherent added values that result in informational added values. These informational added values can be perceived by users of information products and services and therefore be used to assess electronic offers. The relationship between technology inherent and informational added values will be clarified with examples of real business models. Furthermore, a classification of basic business model types will be provided.

Market bundling strategies in the horizontal portal industry

The arrival of the Internet offers opportunities for both incremental efficiency gains and complete industry redefinition, presenting new value propositions and hence leading to the emergence of new businesses and industries. One particular case is that of the horizontal portal industry, such portals being consistently the most visited sites on the Web. Nevertheless, despite ongoing market concentration, overall profitability remains low. In this paper we contend that, although the industry has great potential for value creation, value appropriation in such information-based businesses remains problematic. The only way to achieve it is through cross-market bundling; that is, portals selling their products packaged with Internet access and proprietary content through system competition. We support our claims with theoretical argument and empirical evidence, analyzing the information distribution value chain in its entirety.Portals; information goods; Internet advertising; Internet service providers; content provider;

Enabling mobile commerce through mass customization

Mobile Commerce is a new degree of electronic commerce arises from the convergence of Internet and mobile communication technologies. In order to be successful in mobile business, it is not sufficient to simply transfer conventional Internet applications or E-Commerce business models on mobile devices. Added values for the customer are necessary. Typical informational added values in Mobile Commerce originate from ubiquity, context-sensitivity, identifying functions or command and control functions. Mobile devices implicate disadvantes, which can be equalized by individualization. For the simplest devices, this is satisfied with simple features like housings, ring tones or logos. The more upmarket the device is, the more the individualization focus is laid on the applications instead of the device itself. In terms of mass customization, the individualization of mobile devices and applications can be categorized as soft customization. Below this level, three kinds of customization habe to be distinguished: The first on is device adaptation which means the customization of the device itself. The next one is application adaptation and describes the customization of the applications through the customer or as self-individualization of the software. The last one is service composition and means the package of services or the customer-individual composition of applications and services, which ca be done either by the customer, by the provider or by collaboration of both. In this paper we show the importance of mass customization and its techniques for the success of mobile commerce.mass customization; M-Commerce; mobile added values; point-of-delivery-customization; service composition

Internet and Users. Who is the Reader?

Internet has turned into a fundamental component of everyday life, as it plays a major role in advancing the globalization process. Globalization was fostered by the idea of creating equalaccess opportunities for all and facilitating communication worldwide. Using internet as the core platform, billions of people try to access and benefit from this opportunity through search engines, service providers, websites and social media. However, given the profound difference between internet and user’s languages, users end up on relying on search engines and tools to translate their ideas into a computer-readable language and derive information from them. In order to provide the best possible services, search engines and social media need to accumulate comprehensive data on each user’s identity. The challenge is that once they are fed with convenient information on each user, they tend to personalize the idea they grasp of him or her based on their given regulations and policies, which in the mid- and long-term results in managing users’ access to information.. By applying the reader-response theory, this paper seeks to focus on the challenges stemming from the adoption of users’ personalized profiles by Google, Facebook and Amazon as the most common part of users’ performance in internet. It also explores how the reading differences of the users and the tools result not only in personalized versions of users, but also engender an unrecognized virtual in-betweenness of users’ own perception of themselves and the tools’ perception of users

Optimal Bundle of Multimedia Services in Emerging Mobile Markets

Although various emerging technologies have been launched, they present limitations as far as offering full-scale ubiquitous services independently is concerned. In view of this fact, service providers are likely to provide bundled services among possible combinations of services. Indeed, making a timely decision regarding the value maximization of bundled service is directly related to service providers' future growth and success in the turbulent market environment. This paper aims to find the optimal service bundle among five emerging mobile services: T-DMB, S-DMB, WiBro, HSDPA, and Telematics. Considering what kinds of service features among the five emerging services offer differentiation to customers, we examine four attributes (TV, voice, portable wireless internet, and location-based services) using conjoint analysis to distinguish the service features. Our results show that TV service is the most favored among the attributes, followed by voice service in second position, and the internet and location-based service in third and fourth place respectively. Our result implies that mobile operators would be better off bundling HSDPA and S-DMB first, and then adding other services later, while fixed operators would be better off bundling WiBro and S-DMB first and other services later.telecommunications and broadcasting convergence; emerging service; 4G Technology; T-DMB; S-DMB; WiBro; HSDPA; telematics; customer preference

The Usage of Personal Data as Content in Integrated Marketing Communications

Personal user data has proven extremely valuable for firms in the digital age. The wealth of data available to firms has provided unprecedented access into the world of the consumer. Companies hoping to capitalize on their user's data have turned to several interesting outlets. This research addresses the repurposing of user data as content in marketing. By analyzing four cases of data presented as marketing communications across two companies, this research provides new insights into the public release of private user data for marketing purposes. Four cases of personal data used in marketing communications were chosen specifically for their time proximity, characteristics of the sending firms, and their disparate outcomes. These instances of marketing communications, two by Spotify and two by Netflix, were released during November and December of 2017 and each resulted in a diverse range of public opinion. An analysis of these cases was conducted using the comprehensive framework of integrated marketing communications (Tafesse & Kitchen, 2017). There is a significant difference in the perceptual outcomes of integrated marketing communication campaigns which display user data as content. This analysis provides insights into the characteristics of marketing communications and how their outcomes fit into broader marketing strategies. These case studies provide opportunities for marketers to improve their campaigns in line with their desired audience outcome. Patterns of scope, strategy, mode, and outcome do not suggest success or failure in the context of marketing communications, but rather a set of insights marketers should keep in mind when pursuing communication strategies which harness personal user data.No embargoAcademic Major: Marketin

Self-Service Technology and Online Financial Service Choice

Purpose – The application of self-service technology in transaction-based e-service (e.g. online financial services) creates a challenge for firms: what combination of features should they offer to satisfy needs from different customer segments? This paper seeks to address the above question by highlighting similarities and differences of consumer preferences among self-service, hybrid service and professional service segments for online financial services. Design/methodology/approach – This study employs a web-based discrete choice experiment, in which 1,319 consumers were offered different account alternatives, which include features for self-service and professional assistance, price per transaction, and promotion offers. Findings – The results demonstrate that overall, consumer preferences for features of online financial services differ across segments. Moreover, with the variation in the strength of self-reliance, interesting trends regarding the relative importance of features are observed. With the given customer segments, this study also identifies several demographic features with significant effects on the choice of service alternatives through a multinomial logistic model. Originality/value – The authors believe that these results have both managerial and research implications for design and operations strategy formulation for online financial services