PREMIER PAS OF MOBILE INTERNET BUSINESS: A SURVEY RESEARCH ON MOBILE INTERNET SERVICE

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1 PREMIER PAS OF MOBILE INTERNET BUSINESS: A SURVEY RESEARCH ON MOBILE INTERNET SERVICE Minhee Chae, Youngwan Choi, Hoyoung Kim, Hyoshik Yu & Jinwoo Kim Internet Business Research Center, Yonsei University Human Computer Interaction Lab. {mini, dobiho, veget, cnil, jinwoo}@base.yonsei.ac.kr < URL: > ABSTRACT The increase in both cellular phone users and Internet surfers implies the explosive expansion in Mobile Internet business. In spite of the aggressive environment in which launch the full-fledged Mobile Internet services, there is limited research on the basic preferences and expectations of the Mobile Internet users. For this reason, a survey research was designed to find the status quo of Mobile Internet services and to present future directions for them. The participants in the research included current users, potential users and present content providers. The results showed the differences between the two user groups, as well as those between the users and content providers. In addition, the present Mobile Internet services were found to have critical problems in terms of the interactions, interface and service contents. KEYWORDS Mobile Internet, service contents, users, interaction, interface, contents provider, use context INTRODUCTION In the few years since their inception, the cellular phone and the Internet have grown exponentially in the number of users. The number of cellular phones has increased tenfold, to about 70 million mobile phone users as of 1998[4] while the number of Internet surfers is estimated to be about 3 billion in the world [1]. In the case of Korea, the number of cell phone users has just exceeded 24 million as of January 2000 [10]. Therefore we can easily predict the success in Mobile Internet service by combining these two explosive trends. In Japan, for instance, the NTT DOCOMO imode -Internet capable phone- has already exceeded the PC Internet in the number of users [3]. But this explosive expansion in the number of Internet and cellular phone users doesn t guarantee the success of Mobile Internet. Because the Mobile Internet environment differs significantly from stationary computing in their various use contexts and unfavorable conditions caused by limited resources. Hence, in order for Mobile Internet to prove successful, there should be new and innovative concepts of using IT in Mobile Internet settings. However, past research and projects have focused mainly on the technical aspects of mobile IT, while very few have been on the users needs. No one seems to be able to decisively answer the question: do customers want or even need the Mobile Internet service? [9] This paper reports the results from our first survey of Mobile Internet services. The motivating factor of our survey is to find the status quo of Mobile Internet services. We aim to understand the basic usages, preferences and expectations of two user groups current users and potential users-and the content providers. Our focus will be on the use context, service contents, interaction and

2 interface of the participants, for they are crucial factors in the success of the Mobile Internet. Our survey is meaningful in that its results can show where the new paradigm of Mobile Internet services should be in terms of mobile settings. The rest of the paper is structured as follows: First, we review the characteristics of new mobile computing compared with stationary computing; second, we describe our methods of survey; third, we report the results of the survey; finally, we present and discuss its implication. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MOBILE INTERNET Mobile Internet computing is fundamentally different from existing stationary computing for a many number of reasons. First, the contexts in which the users use the Mobile Internet vary in comparison with stationary computing. In the case of the Mobile Internet, users will be able to perform computing duties without being restricted to an office environment, as is the case with stationary computing. On the contrary in the current trend of stationary computing, users are binded by the limitations of the computing contexts, i.e.: the need to work at a desk or other such stationary environments. The problem of current Mobile Internet services is that Mobile Internet doesn t reflect the users various mobile contexts sufficiently and is still applying direct manipulation, one of characteristics in the stationary computing settings [8]. Therefore, it is necessary to find the Mobile Internet Interaction style, not direct manipulation, suitable for the mobile dynamic contexts.. Therefore, the current direct manipulation interaction style of mobile Internet may not be suitable for the mobile work contexts Second, Mobile Internet device is resource-poor: small display, low bandwidth, small keyboards, limited battery life, unreliable network connections. [2][5][6]. In fact, small display may remain a basic limit of Mobile Internet even though new mobile technologies be sufficiently powerful to overcome the other resources [9]. Therefore, the differences between the Mobile Internet and those of the stationary Internet should be reflected in the designing of the Mobile Internet services in order to guarantee their success in Mobile Internet. Hence, we conducted our survey to present the basic study showing how the users (current and potential users) and the content providers think about the current Mobile Internet service. METHOD In February 2000, we administered the on-line Internet survey and field interview of the Mobile Internet. The online Internet survey was conducted in a similar manner to that of the GVU WWW User survey. We built an on-line survey site, which was advertised and posted to those members of the WAP Korea Forum [ and Wireless Korea Internet Forum [ who might be interested in the Mobile Internet. One could reach our survey web site by an sent to the members of the two forums asking for their participation in the survey. Then, the member was to respond to questions asking if he/she had used the Mobile Internet before and if he/she was a content provider. We did not exclude the possibility of a respondent being both a current user and content provider at the same time. After that, subjects were asked to fill out all of the questionnaires in sequence. A field interview was conducted on the people who participated in the lecture on Wireless Seminar, which took place on February The questionnaire was the same as responses posted on Internet survey. To avoid overlapping with the Internet survey, subjects were asked if he/she had participated in the Internet survey. SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES The survey questionnaires were composed of two categories: General Demographics, and Mobile Internet usage and preference. Mobile Internet usage and preferences were categorized into four subcategories as follows: basic experience of Mobile Internet use; use context; service contents; interaction and interface. The survey questionnaires were made with reference to the GVU WWW User Survey [7]. The general demographic information questions asked basic information of respondents. We asked questions such as user age, sex, occupation, educational background and the current cellular phone company the respondent was using. Additionally, we asked the participant to leave his/her address if he/she wanted to receive the survey results. The basic Mobile Internet use experience questions (2 questions for current users, 2 questions for potential users) was primarily designed to determine how the current user was familiar with the Mobile Internet. Questions were posed asking the amount of hours the respondent used the Mobile Internet per week and how long the respondent had been using it. For potential users, it was asked why the respondent had never used the Mobile Internet service before and if he/she planned on making use of the Mobile Internet in the future.

3 The use context questions was intended to categorize in what kind of contexts each two user groups (present and potential users) used the Mobile Internet. We asked where the respondent used or would use the Mobile Internet. Basically, our aim in posing this question was the difference between the stationary Internet and the Mobile Internet in terms of use context. The service contents questions sought to discover the differences between the expectations for the Mobile Internet service contents among present and potential users and the content providers. Hence, we asked the two user groups what kind of service contents the respondent was using or would use frequently. The service content providers were asked what kind of Mobile Internet application they provided and also what kind of service contents, they thought would prove most prosperous. [Table 2] showed the difference between the user and content provider. The interaction and interface questions (3 questions) were designed to describe the unfavorable interactions and interfaces for the user, in relation to poor resources of the Mobile Internet. We asked the current users three questions: the ease with which they understood the information on the screen, how easy it was to read the information and how often the respondent used the Mobile Internet in order to find information. RESULTS In two weeks, we received 345 responses through the online and field interviews, 59 of the respondents were current users, 271 were potential users and 15 were content providers. We obtained the results of the two surveys through statistical analysis. GENERAL DEMOGRAPHICS The results indicate that over 90% of respondents were between the ages of 21 and 40 and 80% were males. In terms of occupation, 61% described themselves as students (undergraduate and graduate students) 21% as office workers, and 6% as technical engineers. BASIC EXPERIENCE OF MOBILE INTERNET USE For the questions of basic experience of Mobile Internet use, 66% of respondents answered that they used the Mobile Internet service under 1 hour per week, while 24% used it between 2 and 5 hours. Only 10% of respondents used the Mobile Internet over 6 hours. 33% reported that they had used the Mobile Internet service under a month, while 29% reported having used it between 1 and 2 months. 43% of potential users responded that they had never used the Mobile Internet because their mobile phones did not have Internet application. 66% answered that they would use Mobile Internet within a year while 9% said that they would not be using the Mobile Internet in the future. USE CONTEXTS Over 35% of the current users said that they use the Mobile Internet service at the office or at school; 28% used it in the subway, bus, or train; 14% while on the street; and 10% of the potential users said that they would use it when traveling. [Table 1] Current users At office, school (35%) Transportations (28%) On the street Restrant, At home (10%) café [Table 1] Potential users Transportation (28%) On the street (20%) At office, school Restrant, café Resort ( 10%) SERVICE CONTENTS The results showed the Frequent usage of service contents of two user groups (current users and potential users) and the current service contents and potential content services which the content providers are supplying and would supply in the future Users Content Providers Current Potential Current Potential Stock (20%) (17%) Location, Traffic info News Location, Traffic info. (16%) Daily Life (15%) News (13%) (34%) Stock, Banking Chatting, Bulletin Board (8%) Job search, (8%) Entertainment (50%) Health Stock, Bank (16%) (9%)

4 5 Daily Life (13%) [Table 2] Entertainment(8%) (0%) For the current users, they answered that they are using stock information(20%), services(17%), and the service contents providers are supplying those sufficiently ( 34%, stock information : 25%). Looking at the results, the most promising services, according to 50% of the content providers, lay in the entertainment field. But according to present and potential users, only 7% and 1% respectively believed that to be the case. INTERACTION AND INTERFACE As we predicted, interaction and interface survey results show that the Mobile Internet is difficult to use and unable to meet users expectation sufficiently. [Figure 1] shows the degree of retrieval information from the mobile Internet service. 66% of users had difficulty finding the information on the Mobile Internet, while only 13% of users were successful in retrieving information. [Figure 2] show the degree to which the users understood information on the screen. The result indicated that 46% said they could not understand the information on the screen, while only 4% could sufficiently understand the information being provided. [Figure 3] shows the readability of the information on the screen. 54% of the respondents said that they had difficulty reading it, while 21% said that they had ease in reading it. Bad (66%) Good (13%) Normal (21%) Bad (46%) Normal (50%) Good (4%) [Figure 1] [Figure 2] [Figure 3] Good (21%) Bad (54%) Normal DISCUSSION As abovementioned, we have assumed that the Mobile Internet setting is fundamentally different from stationary Internet settings. As the result of use contexts surveys, over 45% of the current users said that they used the Mobile Internet at home or at the office, while the only 14% of the potential users said that they would use at the office and school. There are two possible interpretations as to why the current users mainly used the Mobile Internet (which is portable), indoors (59%), and not outdoors, as is possible. One is that there may not be enough service contents suitable for the unique Mobile Internet settings. The other is that the Mobile Internet device and its user interface may not be easy to use in various outdoor contexts, which may demand high levels of visual attention. We can infer that the expectation of potential users is quite different from the current users from the result that the potential user responded only 14 % at using at home of office, in contrast with the current users. In the service contents survey, the current users and the potential users showed widely varying usages without any bias toward specific contents. On the contrary, the content providers responses centered on service and stock quotations services. It is interesting result that the service contents, which potential users would use, didn t match the content services that the providers would provide in the future. This result implies that service content providers may not be meeting the expectations of the users. Due to the small size of Mobile Internet devices, such as cellular phones, hand-held PCs and PDAs, which prove inconvenient to input compared with the stationary Internet, user interface and interaction styles should be carefully considered in terms of usability. Survey results show that there are problems with the interactions and interfaces for finding information, and understanding and reading the representations being shown on the screen. The problems above and the solutions cannot be found only within the technical domain [9]. Finally, we have to consider limitations in this first survey. Our method suffers from a non-random sampling that our respondents may not be representative. As mentioned, most respondents have a greater interest in the Mobile Internet than does the general population. And the other limitation of our survey is the small number of service content providers. At the time of our first survey, various Mobile Internet services and devices had not had widespread practical use, hence, the difficulty in performing random sampling and gathering enough participants. Hence, we had difficulty in generalizing the results to the entire Mobile Internet population. Therefore, we plan on conducting another upcoming survey to the general Mobile Internet population. CONCLUSION In this paper, we reported results from a survey that was conducted with Mobile Internet users and content providers. As shown by the results, the content provider

5 should know what the user desires, and develop the services, user interfaces, and interactions adequate to the Mobile Internet settings. We believe that it is the most critical factor that finding the new and innovative service contents suitable for the mobile settings through knowing the expectations and current status of the users, for the success in the rapid growing Mobile Internet market. For this reason, we plan on administering Mobile Internet survey every six months for at least three years. We believe that ours will be basic studies for tracking growth, discovering the mobile usages and finding the direction in which the Mobile Internet service should go. REFERENCES [1] ARG, Feb, 2000 [2] Bhagwat, P. & Satish K. Tripathi (1994). Mobile Computing. In proceedings of Networks 94, pp [3] BusinessWeek, January 17, pp [4] CTIA, Washington, DC, (1999) [5] Dearle, A. (1998). Toward Ubiquitous Environments for Mobile Users, IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 2, No. 1, pp [6] Francis, L. (1997). Mobile Computing A fact in your future, In Proceedings of SIGDOC 97, pp [7] GVU WWW User Surveys [URL: [8] Kristoffersen, S. and F. Ljungberg, (1999) Making place to make IT Work: Empirical Explorations of HCI for Mobile CSCW, Proceedings of the International ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work, pp [9] Kristorfferson, S. and F. Ljungberg, (January, 1999) Mobile informatics : Innovation of IT Use in mobile settings: IRIS 21 workshop report, SIGCHI Bulletin, vol. 31, No. 1, pp [10] Ministry of Information and communication, (2000)