Abstract—Mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular; meanwhile, mobile location-based service (MLBS) is considered as a profitable opportunity for service providers. However, there has been a slow growth in the MLBS market in the past few years. Therefore, the current study aims to figure out user preferences for MLBS. Various mobile location-based services were reviewed and further classified into a hierarchy. The hierarchy was applied to investigate user preferences for MLBS using the analytic hierarchy process. The user preferred billing mode was also studied. Under such condition, MLBS providers can put their efforts and resources toward improving and providing prior services and billing mode selected by users. Afterward, the average revenue per user can be expected to rise, and the obstacles to MLBS development might be fewer.
Index Terms—Analytic hierarchy process, billing mode, Location-based services, mobile commerce, mobile location-based services, user preferences.
P. T. Chen is with the Department of Business Administration, I-Shou
University, No.1, Sec. 1, Syuecheng Rd., Dashu District, Kaohsiung City
84001, Taiwan (R.O.C.) (e-mail: ptchen@isu.edu.tw).
Y. S. Lin was with Postgraduate Programs in Management, I-Shou
University, Taiwan (e-mail: kenlin0422@gmail.com).
Cite: P. T. Chen and Y. S. Lin, "Mobile Location-based Services: An Empirical Study of User Preferences," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 416-425, 2011.