Uses and gratifications of social media: a comparison of microblog and WeChat

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-06-2015-0052
Published date09 November 2015
Date09 November 2015
Pages351-363
AuthorChunmei Gan,Weijun Wang
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information systems
Uses and gratications of social
media: a comparison of
microblog and WeChat
Chunmei Gan
School of Information Management, Sun Yat-sen University,
Guangzhou, China, and
Weijun Wang
School of Information Management, Central China Normal University,
Wuhan, China
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the general and specic gratications obtained from
using microblog and WeChat.
Design/methodology/approach – To shed light on the difference of gratications to use microblog
and WeChat, 18 interviews with social media users in China were conducted.
Findings – Results reveal that three types of gratications were obtained from using both microblog
and WeChat: content gratication, social gratication and hedonic gratication. Also, the strength and
components of each gratication for microblog and WeChat were different. Content gratication plays
the most salient role in using microblog, while social gratication is the most important for WeChat
usage. In addition, content gratication of microblog usage is related to information seeking and
information sharing, while social gratication of WeChat usage is constituted by private social
networking and convenient communication. Furthermore, content gratication of WeChat usage refers
to high-quality information provided and information sharing, and entertainment and passing time
develop hedonic gratication of microblog usage, while that of WeChat usage refers to entertainment.
Originality/value – Extant research has mainly focused on the gratications of one social media and
lacks studies comparing the motivations in using different social media. Also, only little research has
identied the components of different gratications and how they affect the adoption of different social
media. The current study attempts to ll these research gaps.
Keywords Microblog, WeChat, Social media, Gratication, Uses and gratications, Motivation
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In recent years, social media such as WeChat and microblog have become increasingly
popular in people’s daily life. The microblog is a free service that enables users to send
messages in real time, and entries of microblog are restricted to a limited number of
characters (e.g. 140 characters) (Liu et al., 2015). And WeChat is a mobile service that
provides users a convenient way to communicate via text and voice messaging, to share
ideas and location (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeChat). According to a report released
by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the number of microblog users
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71403301 and
71271099).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1328-7265.htm
Uses and
gratications
of social
media
351
Received 9 June 2015
Revised 29 August 2015
Accepted 17 September 2015
Journalof Systems and
InformationTechnology
Vol.17 No. 4, 2015
pp.351-363
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/JSIT-06-2015-0052

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