Internet Users and E-Commerce in Growing E-Society:
An Empirical Research Series in Taiwan
This empirical research series, 1966-2004, investigated internet users’ behavior and the growth of e-commerce in Taiwan. Some new ideas of methodological issues for internet users’surveys have been initiated and employed. There were two major findings: 1. The exploration and development of a forecast model of internet users and e-commerce. 2. The profiling of internet users and redefinition of the implication of ‘Digital Divide’. This research series has developed and proven the S-type diffusion of innovation model among internet users. It has successfully explained the explosion of e-commerce during 1996 to 1999 and forecasted its decline after 2000. Based on this forecast model, the author announced an alert to predict the international ‘dot com disaster’ 4 months earlier than it really happened. It is possible that this series has observed some core reliable predictors to understand internet users’ behavioral pattern and produce a theoretical framework under certain validity. This series might have reflected the first threshold of real science that is reliable and predictable. The longitudinal data suggested the reality of current ‘e-commerce’is ‘communication more than commerce’. Most users consider the internet more important as a media channel than as a purchase place. Goods in the B-to-C market are still limited by price. Four strategies were examined including: market scale and trends, sales volume and trends, best seller and potential products, and barriers to e-commerce. Evidence has also shown another angle in which to consider the ‘Digital Divide’. Psychological and cognitive factors might be a better approach than demographic variables to analyze the cause. This research series is the first and only work to conduct internet users and e-commerce research on a random sampling base in Taiwan.

