Investigating factors influencing the market success or failure of IT services in Korea

Many information technology services have been introduced in Korea since the great success of ADSL and CDMA operations, but only a few of these services have succeeded in achieving market diffusion as well as revenue. The success or failure of IT services has significant impact on the national economy and customer welfare. Despite the importance of this sector, there are few studies on the causes underlying the market performances of IT services. This study investigated the critical factors leading to the market results of IPTV, VoIP, W-LAN, WiBro, T-DMB, and S-DMB services in Korea. Using expert surveys and AHP methods, the success or failure factors were identified and their relative weights were evaluated. The results obtained were as follows: (i) The success of such services was mainly due to meeting customer needs, low facility investment costs, service competitiveness, support of ecosystem, and active marketing activities. (ii) The absence of a business model was related to the partial success of services. (iii) Government policy affected service success or failure.