THE PURCHASE MOTIVATIONS AND CONTINUOUS USE INTENTION OF ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a drastic increase in the use of digital platform-based subscription services and to a number of online subscription services based on such industries as OTT video streaming, digital news and media, and elearning. This study aims to identify the factors for purchase motives among users of digital platform-based subscription services and to empirically determine the perceived benefits and risk factors of the motives affecting purchase intention and continuous consumption among users. To do this, five motives for using online subscription services—social, convenient, hedonic, economic, and innovative motives—were identified and 434 online subscription service users in South Korea were sampled and analyzed. Of these motives, a hedonic motive was found to enhance perceived benefits and have the greatest impact on purchase intention. This is followed by convenient and hedonic motives, which users perceived as positive benefits. The factors affecting perceived risk were social and innovative factors, indicating that consumers distinguish social effects and innovative factors as risks in online subscription service. This study is expected to have specific implications for companies in terms of subscription services strategy for recurring profits, instead of customers' one-time purchases.