Developing emerging location-based mobile advertising in Singapore: A socio-technical perspective

Abstract

Increasing adoption of location-based services and smartphones leads to optimistic forecasts for location-based mobile advertising (LBA).This study investigates the development of emerging LBA in Singapore by examining stakeholders’ perspectives and shaping forces in the socio-technical subsystems (i.e., technology, market/industry, and government/regulation). In addition to document analysis, it conducts in-depth interviews with key industry players in the LBA value chain, policy-makers, and smartphone consumers in order to identify drivers and challenges in this nascent mobile business. The socio-technical analyses show that LBA in Singapore is technology-ready with government support and industry pull, while conservative advertisers, negative consumer attitudes, and insufficient regulations hinder LBA`s diffusion. The results reveal that LBA at an early adopter stage in Singapore has a relatively convergent and competitive value chain, as telcos play a crucial part in creating and distributing LBA services. With a newly launched Personal Data Protection Act, smartphone consumers still show concerns about personal privacy, data security, and intrusive spam. Technical implementation and LBA effectiveness are major inhibitors for advertisers` adoption. The Singapore case offers market and regulatory implications for other mobile-advanced countries to develop mobile marketing, location-based services, and LBA.