The Research On The Influencing Users’ Willingness To Pay For W Online Education Payment Platform

With the rapid development of the mobile Internet,online education platforms have risen rapidly,and knowledge payment has become a new business model with extensive market demand in China.In recent years,the scale of online education users in China has continued to increase,and as of March 2020,the number of online education users has reached 423 million,up 222 million from the end of 2018;in 2019,the number of people paying for knowledge exceeded 130 million.With the rapid growth of Internet users,a new industry of "knowledge payment" consumption is gradually forming in China’s Internet market.Research on knowledge payment has continuously and gradually deepened in academic and practical circles.However,the literature on users’ willingness to pay for knowledge on online education platforms is relatively scarce,the theoretical foundation needs to be improved,and the discussion on the influencing factors of users’ willingness to pay on online education platforms needs to be more comprehensive.The problem of the low willingness of platform users to pay still exists in practice,based on which further research and exploration need to improve the willingness of platform users to pay.These make online education platforms need more theoretical guidance in improving user willingness to pay and limit the long-term development of these platforms.The business model of the W online education platform is a "top-up VIP +paid courses" model,which provides courses and services to the paid users of the platform to achieve profits.By the end of 2021,the application user base increased to 123,500,but its membership payment rate was less than 0.1%,which led to the education platform’s inability to cover its expenses.The author collected actual sales data and 202 valid questionnaires from the platform to conduct an empirical study to explore the factors influencing the willingness of users to pay for such platforms in the hope of identifying the reasons for the low user payment rate and thus suggesting countermeasures to improve the willingness of users to pay.The study begins with content combing with relevant domestic and international literature.Combining the TAM model,UTAUT model,perceived value theory,and promotion theory,this thesis concludes that the factors influencing platform users’ willingness to pay are perceived value,perceived ease of use,perceived usefulness,community atmosphere,and promotion.Based on this,this research designed a questionnaire to collect data from users who had purchased courses or used the app.Based on the 202 returned questionnaires,the author empirically tested the factors influencing users’ willingness to pay.Through the empirical analysis,we found that: perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have a positive influence on the willingness to pay for online education platforms;community and promotions such as advertising and discounts have a significant favorable influence on the willingness to pay for online education platforms;perceived value plays a significant mediating role in the influence of perceived usefulness,perceived ease of use,community atmosphere and promotions on users’ willingness to pay.Finally,based on these findings,this thesis proposes counter-measures for the operation of W’s online education platform,intending to provide some theoretical guidance to enhance W’s willingness to pay and acquire its profit growth.