Internet futures: unlocking user bottlenecks

The notion of ‘bottlenecks’ for Internet users emerged as a useful umbrella concept to categorise a range of impediments to the uptake of Internet based transaction services in Australia. This paper reports the results of a study of barriers influencing Internet consumers, Internet providers views of what consumers want/need, and factors associated with potential up-take of new forms of mobile phone commercial transactions. The methodology was focus groups and in-depth interviews. Trust emerged as an important predictor of consumer behaviour, for both Internet and m-commerce users. The perception that users have of the (lack of) security of their transactions on the Internet is a major inhibiting factor in the growth of on-line services. While trust was also an issue for mobile phone users who might consider m-commerce, a mitigating factor against risk perception of the mobile phone as an extension of self (and therefore somehow more trustworthy). Interestingly, providers did not see the complex issues of trust in the same light as users. They drew a distinction between the consumer sense of trusting the Internet as a medium of communications as opposed to the ‘trusted’ brand reputation of the merchants. Implications for Internet futures are discussed.