Virtual cohabitation in online dating sites: a netnography analysis

Pages513-530
Date12 August 2019
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-11-2016-0338
Published date12 August 2019
AuthorYi-Sheng Wang
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management
Virtual cohabitation in
online dating sites:
a netnography analysis
Yi-Sheng Wang
Department of Marketing and Distribution Management,
Oriental Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore in depth the special context and unique life experience
of the online dating site and provide insights regarding an interpretation of virtual cohabitation model.
Design/methodology/approach This study uses netnography, online interviews and the physical travel
of researchers to the field for field participation and observations. The combination of netnography and online
interviews combines online and offline studies to achieve more consistency in the data collection, analysis and
other processes. In-person participation in observations makes the research more realistic. The combination
of these qualitative methods is helpful in achieving a more comprehensive and accurate research process.
Findings The findings of the study can be classified into a three-stage situational context approach, which
is presented in the form of propositions. Finally, the insight of the virtual cohabitation context model was
developed, namely, motivation (including escapism, hedonic gratification and autonomous), showing off and
psychological compensation, stimulation and fantasies, emotions (including impulsiveness, emotions and
desires), over-control and low self-control, behavioral control, gratification and dependence and love trap
(including sex transactions and consumption traps).
Originality/value The theoretical contribution of this study is to establish an interpretation of virtual
cohabitation model and ten related propositions.
Keywords Netnography, Online dating sites, Virtual cohabitation
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In recent years, an interesting topic affecting multiple dating sites has been raised by the
media: the introduction of virtual cohabitation through online dating site iPartment.
This dating site,or game, was widely covered on TV, in magazines,and by online media, and
editorials havediscussed the effect of virtual cohabitation on society. At present,iPartment is
a global top 600 website(The China Times, 2017; Money DJ, 2017).The game was selected by
Business Next (2017) as one of its global top 100 hottest online profit models. It boasts 22m
members, mostly from China, Malaysia, the USA, Singapore and Australia. Its website
attracts over 7m page views per day. In one survey of users, 53.4 percent of respondents
believed that virtual cohabitation can alleviate feelings of emptiness and loneliness,
19.5 percent believedthat proper guidance should be providedto users, 17.7 percent indicated
they would break up with their partners if they engaged in virtual cohabitation and
9.4 percent believedthat emotional cheating is a more serious offence than physical cheating.
In a dating and marriage survey published by Inside (2017), in which 10,612 valid
questionnaireswere sampled, it was revealed that one out ofevery five respondents had found
their partners on the virtual cohabitation website since its launch and one out of every
21 members had found their marriage partners there, leading to 160,000 online relationships
resulting in marriage and the birth of 110,000 babies. In addition, 80 percent of women who
experienced virtual cohabitation expressed their desire to have one-night stands, up from the
initial 40 percent before the introduction of virtual cohabitation. As much as 50 percent of
these women found one-night stands via virtual cohabitation, implying that one out of every
two women had participated in one-night stands (Inside, 2017). What allowed virtual
cohabitation to achieve such high match rates?
Online Information Review
Vol. 43 No. 4, 2019
pp. 513-530
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-11-2016-0338
Received 30 November 2016
Revised 24 April 2018
23 May 2018
Accepted 26 December 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
513
Virtual
cohabitation
in online
dating sites
Although the virtual cohabitation online dating site is popular and the number of users
has significantly increased over time (iPartment, 2017), the state of mind of the users who
join it and the reasons why they embrace virtual cohabitation remain unclear. Does it
provide a special networking or life experience opportunity? These questions are not
adequately addressed in previous research. The purpose of this study is to explore in depth
the special context and unique life experiences provided by the online dating site and
provide insights in terms of an interpretation of the situational context model.
Literature review
Online dating
As its name suggests, the definition of an online dating is that the practice of searching for
a romantic or sexual partner on the internet, typically via a dedicated website (Nam, 2017).
With the rise of internet dating has come a new carelessness about dating etiquette
(Whyte and Torgler, 2017). This study provides a comparison with their findings as r egards
online dating vs online gaming, as shown in Table I.
Wang et al. (2017) explore the combined effect of romantic attachment and surveillance on
relationships for college dating couples; recruited 250 dating couples for this research.
The study revealed that both anxiety and avoidance have negative effects on onesownand
onespartnersperceived relationship quality. Furthermore, surveillance may offset maleslower
perceived relationship quality when this perception is caused by partnersavoidance.
Person with insecure attachment could not benefit from ones own SNS surveillance. Chan (2017)
explore the intent to use dating apps to look for romance and casual sex. The results revealed
that,regardingusingdatingappstoseekromance,peoples attitude and perceived norm were
predictive of such intent. Sensation-seeking and smartphone use had a direct relationship with
intent. Only smartphone use was indirectly related to this intent. Sánchez et al. (2015) analyzed
the quality of cyberdating among adolescents by means of a mixed study. Two focus groups
were developed with the aim of exploring the positive and negative aspects of internet and social
networks for dating relationships. Descriptive analysis showed that these scales were very
frequent among adolescents, with boys scoring higher in intrusive behavior and cyberdating
practices than girls. The instrument was administered to 626 adolescents (average age 15.13;
SD ¼1.34; 51.4 percent males) and a cross-validation procedure was performed using
exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Results confirmed a structure of six factors,
namely, online intimacy, emotional communication strategies, cyberdating practices, online
control, online jealousy and online intrusive behavior. These results underlined the relevance
of online activity in the adolescent quality of dating relationships. Sánchez-Franco et al. (2015)
Similarities
Online dating and
online gaming (Nam, 2017)
Enjoy in a timely manner
Online behavior
May be truthfulness or virtual avatar
Common interests and hobbies
Interact and share
Differences
Online dating
(Whyte and Torgler, 2017;
Nam, 2017;
Blackhart et al., 2014)
Online dating is a good way to meet people
Online dating allows people to find a better match for themselves because
they can get to know a lot more people
Online dating is easier and more efficient than other ways of meeting people
Online gaming
(Nam, 2017)
Online gaminghelp develop good problem-solvingand strategic thinking skill
Online gaming promotes teamwork and communication
Online gaming are a better form of entertainment than watching TV
Table I.
Compare similarities
and differences
in online dating
and gaming
514
OIR
43,4

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