How is the mobile internet different? Search costs and local activities

Anindya Ghose, Avi Goldfarb, Sang Pil Han

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

We explore how internet browsing behavior varies between mobile phones and personal computers. Smaller screen sizes on mobile phones increase the cost to the user of reading information. A wider range of offline locations for mobile internet usage suggests that local activities are particularly important. Using data on user behavior at a (Twitter-like) microblogging service, we exploit exogenous variation in the ranking mechanism of posts to identify user search costs. We show (1) Search costs related to primacy effects are higher on mobile phones and (2) The benefit of searching for geographically close matches is higher on mobile phones. Thus, the mobile internet is somewhat less "internet-like": search costs are higher and distance matters more. Our results suggest a possible exception: while primacy effect-related search costs are higher in a mobile phone, the cost of acquiring timely information appears to be lower on a mobile phone than on a PC.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationInternational Conference on Information Systems 2011, ICIS 2011
Pages614-631
Number of pages18
StatePublished - 2011
Externally publishedYes
Event32nd International Conference on Information System 2011, ICIS 2011 - Shanghai, China
Duration: Dec 4 2011Dec 7 2011

Publication series

NameInternational Conference on Information Systems 2011, ICIS 2011
Volume1

Other

Other32nd International Conference on Information System 2011, ICIS 2011
Country/TerritoryChina
CityShanghai
Period12/4/1112/7/11

Keywords

  • Hierarchical bayesian
  • Local commerce
  • Microblogging
  • Mobile internet
  • Search costs
  • Social media
  • User behavior

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Information Systems

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