Characteristics of the market for low-quality information business services in the field of online education and factors affecting its sustainability in Russia

About the authors:

Vladislav A. Usov, Postgraduate Student, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; stud0000225839@utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9727-2420

Lyudmila M. Simonova, Dr. Sci. (Econ.), Professor, Department of Management and Business, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; l.m.simonova@utmn.ru

Abstract:

The transformation of the media environment demonstrates a decrease in the level of trust of Russians in the media, as opposed to an increase in trust in the Internet and media personalities. In this wave, the spread of fake content and unscrupulous entrepreneurs in the infobusiness environment has become a remarkable and large-scale phenomenon of our time and forms the information agenda of many countries, posing a serious threat to information security. Inappropriate content in the information business is launched with the deliberate purpose of misleading potential consumers in order to obtain financial benefits and profit, forming a stable base for low-quality and fraudulent information business services, especially in the field of online education. The distance learning market, which has been compared to full-time education, has attracted fraudsters offering low-quality or false information business services, including the sale of publicly available information under the guise of exclusivity. This problem is becoming particularly acute in the context of the active spread of neural networks and artificial intelligence in the media environment. As a result, a special market segment is emerging with its own basic characteristics and features. At the same time, this market is not directly regulated from the legal point of view. In this regard, the study of such a segment, its features and sustainability factors seems timely and relevant. The aim of the work is to identify the characteristic features and causes of the stability of the low-quality infobusiness market in Russia from both service providers and consumers. Open data, methods of expert assessments, content analysis, and customer reviews were used. The revealing of identifying features and factors determining the development of the represented segment of the information business in the country, as well as ways to reduce its negative impact on the development of online education in Russia, represent an independent result of the study.

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