Privacy may be more important in Beijing than in Hong Kong in location-based services

Location-based technologies are getting sophisticated, and there are many studies conducted focused on the influence of permission, trust, relevance, and context issues in the acceptance of location-based services (LBS) and advertising in various cultural backgrounds. Understanding the perception of LBS in the e-commerce maturity spectrum is important for marketers to maximise the impact of these technologies. In this empirical study, the authors found that respondents from Beijing are a little more acceptive of LBS in a certain category of products and services while respondents from Hong Kong are acceptive in other categories. The research also identified two groups of respondents - progressives and vexessives, in both locations. The larger group progressives are openly embracing LBS, and smaller group vexessives are often annoyed with LBS and are very slow in accepting these technologies. The challenge is to identify the efficacy of these technologies for various categories of products in different economic, legal, and cultural backgrounds and find effective solutions.