How Much Will You Pay to Use Open Data? Evidence from the Seoul Metropolitan Government

In line with the emerging data economy, governments and businesses are exploring how to drive value through data usage. As a part of this notable trend, open government data (OGD), through which a variety of public information is available for free use at online websites, has been shaping new opportunities for nations, society, and enterprises. While researchers and policymakers have focused on how and what to provide for better practices in innovative digital public service, the actual value created from the data offering has received scant attention. This study fills the gap by measuring the monetary value of the OGD service as a stated willingness to pay (WTP). To do this, we collaborated with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, which operates one of the largest and most active online OGD portals in the world, offering over 20 million documents and other forms of information. We consider three stakeholder groups—people using OGD, people not using OGD, and city officials—to compare their assessments of emerging public digital goods. Our estimates suggest that people using OGD are willing to pay $0.8 a month for the service, on average, in the most conservative approach; however, this value is not significantly different from that of people not using OGD ($0.6). Instead, we find that a higher proportion of people using OGD refuse to pay any amount for the service than people not using OGD, whereas a higher proportion of city officials give true zero responses than people not using OGD. We discuss the merits and limitations of quantifying intangible digitized public goods and propose future directions.