One of the most significant demarketing issues in e-business is “charged Internet services.” Although, many e-business firms boast their large number of subscribers, this cannot ensure profit for them because e-business firms have offered “free Internet services.” The point of this campaign is making as many customers pay for their service as possible. As a result, the goal of e-business demarketing is not destructing customer’s needs, but increasing a company’s profit.
This study analyzed successful demarketing case of Internet auction, Internet game and mobile telecommunication firms. The purpose of this study is to suggest guideline for e-business firms which consider demarketing campaign. To achieve this research objective, the factors - reputation of the service provider, service substitutability, easy of using the service and usefulness of the service and switching barriers - are analyzed through case study.
The findings are summarized as follows: First, the reputation of the service provider, service substitutability and usefulness of the service has significant impacts on the switch barrier. Second, if customers recognize switch barrier high, they would have difficulties in switching service despite the service cost increased or the service benefit decreased.