Who Pays for Online Content? A Media Dependency Perspective Comparing Young and Older People

Drivers and deterrents of music streaming services purchase intention

“…Results shows that differences are statistically significant for gender (MD = .328; t-value = 2.877; p < .01) and age (MD = -.486; t-value = -3.757; p < .00). Pairwise comparisons revealed that purchase intention of MSS is lower for women and for youngsters, aged between 15-25 years old -the so-called 'digital natives' (Prensky, 2001) who grew up with digital media, are often early adopters of new technologies and extensive users of the internet ) -when compared with men and older users, with more than 26 years old, including not only young adults but also 'digital immigrants' (Prensky, 2001), who though increasingly dependent and more open to new media, learned digital skills mostly during adulthood (Yang et al, 2015).…”

“…The success of this model largely depends on consumer willingness to pay for freemium services (Li and Cheng, 2014;Wagner et al, 2014;Hamari et al, 2017a). Yet, persuading users to spend money on these services represents a major business challenge (Dinsmore et al, 2017), especially when consumers have plenty of free alternatives, a deeply entrenched 'free-lunch' mentality (Dou, 2004;Lin et al, 2013;Ye et al, 2004) and reference prices close to zero (Papies et al, 2011), which leads to a general belief that 'content is free' (Li and Cheng, 2014;Pauwels and Weiss, 2008;Yang et al, 2015). Furthermore, users may perceive a certain degree of unfairness associated with paying for online content, given that MSS advertising revenues are considered enough to support their financial viability (Lin et al, 2013;Ye et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2005).…”

“…Yet, other studies determined that older users were more likely to buy online (Donthu and Garcia, 1999) or to purchase smart homes (Shin et al, 2018), and Sorce et al (2005) found that older consumers purchased as much as youngsters online. In general, older users are also reported to be inherently more price-conscious and known to expect value for money in a purchase when compared to the younger generations , while young people value the convenience, information availability and good deals of online shopping (Yang et al, 2015). Considering online content, Ye et al (2004) suggest that older consumers may be more willing to use fee-based online services than younger ones, while Chyi and Lee (2013) and Punj (2015) concluded that younger people are more likely to pay for online news, since older people are more used to consume traditional media content.…”

“…Considering online content, Ye et al (2004) suggest that older consumers may be more willing to use fee-based online services than younger ones, while Chyi and Lee (2013) and Punj (2015) concluded that younger people are more likely to pay for online news, since older people are more used to consume traditional media content. Also Yang et al (2015) empirically demonstrated that age is negatively related to willingness to pay for online content (particularly entertainment content), mainly due to new media dependency, even though disposable income is lower for young people. In the context of online music, Weitjers et al (2014) found that youngsters are more open to advertising and to the versatility of streaming, while middle-aged adults are more willing to pay for advertising-free platforms and are more likely to prefer ownership over access.…”

“…2005). However, MSS face the challenge of persuading users to opt for the for-fee version (Doerr et al, 2010;Dinsmore et al, 2017), since consumers who are accustomed to free content seem unready to embrace this practice (Dou, 2004;Li and Cheng, 2014;Lin et al, 2013;Yang et al, 2015). Moreover, the peculiarities of online content as a paid product (namely, the existence of many undifferentiated free alternatives) also constitutes a challenge for these services (Dou, 2004;Pauwels and Weiss, 2008;Vock et al, 2013).…”