Socio-Demographics and Citizens' Use of the E-Government Services: A Longitudinal Analysis of the E-Government Survey Data in Korea

This study aimed to empirically analyze the relationship between socio-demographics (such as gender, age, education, income, and employment status) and the use of web-based and mobile e-government services in Korea by utilizing a repeated cross-sectional survey data from 2015 to 2020. It focused on both general and domain specific e-government services, namely, Gov24, Hometax, and E-people, representing information, financial transaction, and e-participation services, respectively. The research revealed that, with the exception of gender, a divide still exists in terms of most socio-demographics for the utilization of any e-government services. However, when examining the relationship between socio-demographics and domain specific e-government services, patterns were found to be sharply different from the utilization of any e-government services. The digital divide in the use of domain specific e-government services was not noticeable, as most socio-demographics in the use of any e-government services became insignificant, weaker, or even demonstrated opposite directions in the case of citizens' use of the web-based and mobile information, transaction, and e-participation services. Furthermore, it was found that domain specific mobile e-government services are more inclusive, in general, than their web-based counterparts when it comes to most socio-demographics examined.