Abstract
Though much attention has been paid to offer various multimedia services by many online service providers, the study on consumer behavior of online information service users are yet to be further explored in various aspects. This study develops a mathematical model for analyzing online consumer's usage patterns, contrasted to the existing media selection theory and flow concept about usage behavior of information services. We demonstrated using some case examples that online information consumption can be viewed not only as a cognitive behavior interacting with online media, but also as an economically rational behavior depending on consumer's perceived cost and time spending. The results obtained in this paper will surely serve as a theoretical foundation for justifying the consumer's behavior and WTP (willingness to pay) for various online contents consumption empirically.