虛擬社群參與者之市場區隔與經營模式之研究

Abstract

在美國總統柯林頓解除網際網路商業化的禁令之後，網際網路使用人數就有如滾雪球般越滾越大，毫無疑問的，網際網路正逐漸改變我們的生活型態，電子商務的前途指日可待。雖然入口網站或網際網路服務提供廠商(ISP)可以吸引許多的人潮，但卻不能使這些訪客停留更久的時間。有鑑於此，網路商機這本書的作者Armstrong和Hagel Ⅲ，建議建立一個虛擬社群來留住訪客的心，以及形成一股巨大的議價力量。 虛擬社群不僅改變了傳統的經濟定律，而且也為現在社會和產業結構產生巨大的衝擊。它聚集相同興趣及需求的會員，使廠商可以節省更多的搜尋成本，也可以鎖定潛在消費群。本研究希望瞭解虛擬社群參與者的消費行為及如何經營一個成功虛擬社群的方法。由於以上的目的，問卷以生活形態變數為市場區隔的基礎被設計出來，我們把問卷上傳至主機，並提供獎品來招徠網友填寫問卷。利用集群分析這些樣本資料，三個消費群被區分出來，本研究結果顯示：1.虛擬社群參與者大部分是學生，而且年齡介於20至24歲之間。2.最受歡迎的虛擬社群服務是網路同學會及聊天室。3.虛擬社群參與者大部分希望參加個人休閒娛樂相關社群。 我們也實際訪問五個虛擬社群相關的公司，包括Cityfamily、23xx電子論壇、八足網路共合國、集客大師及虛擬國度。由於以上的訪談，我們發現這些公司所面臨的困境以及經營虛擬社群的關鍵成功因素。

After Americn President Cliton remove the ban of Internet commercializing,the number of Internet users is increasing as rolling snowball.No doubt that Internet is changing our life style gradually,the future of electronic commerce can be expected soon.Although portal site or Internet service provider(ISP) can attract a lot of visits,but can’t let them stay longer .In viewing of this,Armstrong and Hagel Ⅲ,the authors of Net gain,suggest building a virtual community to hold visits’ heart and form a huge power to negotiate price with vendors. The virtual community has not only changed tranditional economic rule, but also give a great impact on the infrastructure of present society and industry.It gather members with the same interests and needs,vendors could save more money in searching, and targeting to potential customers.This research wants to know the consumer behaviors of the virtual community participant and the way to manage a successful virtual community.For these purposes, questionnaires are designed and life style variables are used as a basis of market segmentation.We sent the questionnaires to Internet server and offer a reward on filling it out.By using the method of cluster analysis to analyze the sampled data,three consumer groups are separed out. The research results shows:1.The virtual community participants are mostly students and the age is between 20 to 24 years old.2.The popular virtual community services are Internet classmate meeting and chat room.3.The virtual community participants mostly want to take part in personal leisure and entertainment related community. We also physically visited five virtual community related companies,including CityFamily,23xx Electronic Forum,Taconet,Hyper Market and Virtual World.By above visit ,we find out these companies’ plight they ecounter and the successful critical factors to manage a virtual community.