How socio-economic structure influences rural users' acceptance of mobile entertainment

Mobile entertainment services are rapidly and widely developing. However, in emerging markets like Chinese rural area, entertainment related services are still not fully accepted by mobile phone users. This primary research aimed to study Chinese rural people's acceptance for mobile entertainment, to provide comprehensive models, and to explain the problem from its socio-economic roots. Interview and survey data were collected. Using explorative factor analysis method, two mobile entertainment acceptance models were built: one for rural people in North China and the other in East China. The models show that "social influence" is the most influential factor for north rural users while users' "self efficacy" carries the largest weight in East China. Both factors are more important than "product and service quality". The socio-economic roots of the results were analyzed from the differences between the traditional interdependent society in North China and the more independent society in East China. It primarily reveals the possibility to predict users' technology acceptance with socio-economic variables. Implications for mobile entertainment design were discussed.