Influence of Free Consultation Services on Patients’ Willingness to Pay in Online Medical Platforms

Online medical platforms have emerged as a popular means for patients to access high-quality medical services efficiently. These platforms offer a variety of services, including paid consultations and free consultations. Given that doctors can increase their revenue through these platforms, researchers should investigate how to improve patients’ willingness to pay for these services. Drawing upon social exchange theory, stimulus-organism-response theory, and the information systems (IS) success model, this study proposes a model and five hypotheses to examine the influence of free medical consultations on patients’ willingness to buy paid services. To test these hypotheses, a questionnaire survey was conducted, and the collected data were analyzed using the structural equation model. The results indicate that the quality of information and services provided by doctors during free consultations positively affects patients’ willingness to pay. By introducing information quality and service quality into the IS success model in the context of free medical consultations, this study contributes to the literature on online medical platforms and expands our understanding of patients’ behavior. The findings of this study can be useful for online medical platforms and doctors to design effective platform functions and individual behavioral strategies.