Advertising Discourses and Mobile Telephone Adoption in Taiwan

The diffusion of mobile telephones in Taiwan has demonstrated astonishing growth since its telecommunications market was open for competition in early 1990s, following government deregulations in Taiwan’s telecommunications sectors. Although scholars have attributed the success of mobile telephone diffusion to aggressive marketing activities, few have explored advertising discourses promoting mobile telephones in Taiwan. To fill the gap in the literature, this study adopted a historical approach to examine advertising discourses as seen in two major newspapers in Taiwan. In particular, we examined advertising discourses of major mobile telephone companies in earlier 1998. To extract characteristics of these discourses, a quantitative content analysis method was used to collect data. Our statistical analyses confirmed that rational appeals about mobile telephone adoption were emphasized in these discourses. Because mobile telephones have diffused exponentially in the Greater China Region since early 1990s, future studies exploring advertising discourses in other parts of this region will help understand commonalities and diversities of mobile technology discourses. These studies will help uncover the complicated relationships among discourse formation, socio-economical context, and cultural-linguistic environment unique to many diasporic ethnic Chinese communities in the Greater China Region. [China Media Research. 2008; 4(1): 8-18]