Understanding key factors affecting young people's

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Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2016

Understanding key factors affecting young people’s WeChat usage: an empirical study from uses and gratifications perspective Hua Pang Institute of Media and Communication, IFK, Dresden University of Technology, Zellescher Weg 17, 01069 Dresden, Germany Fax: +49-351-463-37067 Email: [email protected] Abstract: WeChat, a newly fashionable mobile app, has been widely used by young adults in China in recent years. However, it remains unclear why and how young people adopt it. The present study attempts to fill the current knowledge gap by investigating young people’s motivations in the light of the well-grounded uses and gratifications framework. Data are collected from online questionnaires based on 170 survey samples of young people in the age of 18 to 30. A principal components factor analysis identified four types of motives for using WeChat: pastime, affection, sociability and fashion. The remarkable finding is that, pastime and affection are predictive constructs for predicting WeChat usage behaviours through applying the regression analysis. Although female users tend to use WeChat more often and spend more time on each session than male users, the latter are more enthusiastic about using WeChat as a mean of interpersonal communication and following fashion. This research is expected to obtain a better understanding of the powerful influence of the fastest-growing social media on the young adult cohort. Keywords: WeChat; use and gratification; motivation; gratifications obtained; gratifications sought; social media; mobile app; mobile internet; young people; China. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Pang, H. (2016) ‘Understanding key factors affecting young people’s WeChat usage: an empirical study from uses and gratifications perspective’, Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp.262–278. Biographical notes: Hua Pang is currently conducting research in the Institute of Media and Communication (IFK), at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany. She received her PhD in Philosophy from the Dresden University of Technology in September 2015. There she compared and analysed college students’ political behaviours in the age of social media between Germany and China. Her research interests include the political and civic effects of new media on the society and the comparative political communication study in the new media context.

Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Understanding key factors affecting young people’s WeChat usage

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Introduction

Along with the development of mobile phone platform and wireless communication, mobile internet is already the most common mean of reaching the web through smartphones or tablet computers in nearly all nations of the world, China is not exceptional. Based on the latest report issued by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in January 2014, the number of mobile internet users in China has reached up to 500 million, accounting for about 81% of its total internet population (CNNIC, 2014). Benefiting from the dynamic growth and practice of web application, WeChat (literally: ‘micro message’) as one of the fastest rising mobile app in China has received an astonishing amount of attention and expectation. WeChat, launched in China in January 2011, reached 100 million users within one year and 200 million users only six months later (Tencent, 2014). Currently, WeChat has become the China’s largest most widely used mobile instant-messaging service, with more than 600 million registrants worldwide as of April 2014, of which 500 million users are within China (Kutaragi, 2014). Owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, the multi-purpose messaging app has a startling array of features and claims to be a new platform to connect with friends and a way of living. It is not only a free instant messaging mobile application that works by allowing users to exchange quick voice message, video, graphics or text on a wide range of topics from personal interests, leisure activities to current news and politics over the internet, but also a hybrid that integrates with texting and chatting, location-sharing, games, sending mobile payments, and a series of other services (Debrah, 2014). WeChat is particularly popular for young adults between the ages of 22 and 30 (Yuan, 2013). Furthermore, it is found that almost all of undergraduate students use WeChat everyday, 84% of them use more than half an hour per day (Mao, 2014). Taking into account the widespread diffusion of WeChat and its unique characteristics, it has constituted itself as an information-rich virtual environment in which young people could share information on various aspects of their lives, keep in touch with friends, families as well as express themselves (Liu, 2014). Consequently, the growing proliferation of WeChat amongst young people has been realised by numbers of researchers in new media and communication studies. However, compared with other patterns of social media such as Facebook and Blog, WeChat received a few in-depth studies (Mao, 2014; Yue, 2014; Liu and Xu, 2014). Therefore, it is crucially important to gain more insights on how and why young adults use it as a new tool of communication. In other words, which kinds of motivations promote young people to use it? And are these general and specific motivations associated with young people’s WeChat usage behaviours? This paper will focus on the uses and gratifications (U&G) that young adults receive from using WeChat by applying U&G theory, and also seek to provide a better and more comprehensive understanding of China’s social media landscape.

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Literature review and related works

2.1 Previous research on WeChat usage Research into WeChat usage patterns suggested that WeChat was used and adopted primarily to chat, record, show, send voice, video, pictures, text and express to their contacts through mobile network (Mao, 2014; Zeng et al., 2013). Most pervious researches on WeChat usage were mainly from China. Zhou and Sun (2014) summarised four characteristics of WeChat: sending a voice message, video, images text; supporting group chat (maximum 20); checking the one using it nearly, logging in by e-mail or QQ; supporting Tencent microblog, QQ e-mail, virtual floating boats, audionote, and QQ synchronous assistant plug-in feature (Zhou and Sun, 2014). In addition, some researchers claimed that WeChat is evolving from a pure message tool into a multi-functional platform, such as Game Center, Official Accounts and Payment (Bai and Hao, 2013). Moreover, Xu (2013) found that WeChat exerts a great influence on college students’ social interaction. It not only enriches the contents of the college students’ social interaction, but also broadens the scope of information dissemination (Xu, 2013). Some scholars have obtained similar results, indicating that students use WeChat for both maintaining preexisting close relationships and promoting the relationships of acquaintances (Wang and Zhang, 2013). In terms of other functions, a recent finding from Mao (2014) suggested that WeChat also is a good way to release stress and relaxation. Meanwhile, WeChat has the maximum impact on the ideological and political education, to attract students motivated to learn the content of ideological politics by improving teaching and learning, learning through mobile, and so on (Wei and Ke, 2014). Furthermore, the government can delivery official information to public through WeChat, which is a new mode of government disclosure in China with the advantage of convenience, quickness and great activity (Gong and Liu, 2014). In summary, at the individual level, these studies have indicated that WeChat mainly serves sociability and relaxation functions. To be specific, it not only enables users to maintain relationships with offline connections both near and far, but also provides people with a way to release pressure. But few studies addressed on motivations of young people’ WeChat using. This current paper aims to contribute to the extant literature by studying the factors of young adults’ WeChat using.

2.2 U&G perspective U&G theory is related with this new kind of social networking site due to its origin in the communications literature. The basic premise of U&G theory is that individuals will seek out media among competitors that meets their needs and leads to their ultimate gratifications (Lariscy et al., 2011). The focus of the theory is on what individual do with the media rather than the influence or impact of the media on the person (Blumler and Katz, 1974). Amount of the pervious studies on U&G have paid attention to television (Lin, 1993; Rubin, 1983), newspaper (Blood et al., 1983) and other kinds of traditional media (Finn, 1997; Randle, 2003). With the widespread adoption of new media, such as Facebook, Blog, and YouTube, important new research from this perspective is arising in recent years. Studies have shown that gratifications received are good predictors of new media use and recurring media use (Chiu and Huang, 2014; Doty and Dworkin, 2014). In


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addition, U&G has also been used extensively within the study of political attitude and behaviours (Cheng et al., 2014). Research in the U&G of WeChat is important because it sheds light on what motivates individuals to be obsessed with using new media and what kinds of gratifications these are providing.

2.2.1 Understanding motivations for using WeChat As U&G has always provided a cutting-edge theoretical approach in the initial stages of new mass communications medium (Ruggiero, 2000). Based on this theory, scholars distinguished between gratifications obtained and gratifications sought (Katz et al., 1973; Palmgreen et al., 1980). In particular, gratifications obtained mainly means satisfaction that media users subsequently experience through the use of a particular medium. However, gratifications sought (also referred to as ‘needs’ or ‘motives’) can be defined as those gratifications that individuals expect to get from a medium in advance of actually exposure. The value of theory lies in that obtained gratifications may differ from those sought and this resulting gap can be applied to predict the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction that person experience from the usage of specific media (Palmgreen et al., 1980). A number of researches in U&G tradition has focused on obtained gratifications and neglected to explore individuals’ motivations to start using a new medium (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010). Previous research has generally found that, similar to traditional media, individuals contact with the internet mainly for two dimensions of use types: surveillance or entertainment purposes (Armstrong and McAdams, 2011). Besides, a serious of studies by scholars attempted to isolate specific motivations and found out how each motivation links with different social media. For example, the scholars found that Facebook is about having fun and knowing about the social activities occurring in one’s social network, by contrast, instant messaging is more inclined to maintain and develop relationships (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010). In review of the WeChat literatures, although recent studies have provided insight into how WeChat communication are used and what gratifications they provide, only a few empirical work has been conducted (Mao, 2014; Zeng et al., 2013), especially for examining the motivations for joining. An investigation of the motivations for joining WeChat is relevant because it could uncover what factors influence adoption.

2.2.2 Understanding gratifications for WeChat use Gratifications obtained are deemed as an important predictor of an individual’s media habits, because of media use satisfactory leads to continuous use behaviours (Palmgreen et al., 1980). As Blumler and Katz (1974) noted, gratifications obtained provide insight into what motivates continued use of the medium. Therefore, scholars were concerned not only with the motivations that students hope to get from using media, but also with a variety types of gratifications that users have obtained after the use of the media. Although few studies have systematically investigated gratifications obtained from WeChat, a number of studies provided important insight into the wide range of gratifications that users obtain from employing social media. For instance, in an interview study, Zeng et al. (2013) found that the usage of WeChat can be delivered into two parts: work and entertainment. WeChat helps to reduce the cost of communication and improve the efficiency as well as ease the burden from work (Zeng et al., 2013). Similarly, recent

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research has found that friends and relaxation are the key factors of undergraduate students’ WeChat using in China (Mao, 2014). Being a new application, the user acceptance of WeChat has not been studied and only a few research conducted factor analysis to further examine the structure of motivations.

2.3 Research questions Summarising, U&G theory offers a good starting point for the explanation of WeChat use by acknowledging that there is underlying needs that motivates it usage. To continue this line of research, this study consists of four research questions, which are designed to investigate the motives young people have for their involvement in WeChat use. This study will add to the existing literature on young people’ use of social media by examining what motivates them to participate in the WeChat phenomenon and reveal the gratification they obtains from contacting with it. Research question 1 What are the motives of young people in China for using WeChat? Research question 2 What gratifications do young people obtain from their use of WeChat? Research question 3 How are young people’s gratifications obtained related with their usage behaviours? In addition, in the peer-reviewed literature, gender differences in the specific use of computers and social media have been well-documented (Correa et al., 2010; Lenhart et al., 2010; Weiser, 2000). As the explanation from the theory of diffusion, the early adopters of new communication technologies were most often well-educated young males and affluent and have a higher income (Cooper and Weaver, 2003; LaRose and Atkin, 1988). By contrast, young female feel inadequate with new information technology and have less digital skills, in consideration of unequal opportunities and attention (Cooper and Weaver, 2003). Therefore, gender roles represent an important social factor influencing perceptions and behaviours with respect to internet adoption and usage (Gefen and Straub, 2000). Thus, we expect significant differences in the use of WeChat between males and females by asking the following research question. Research question 4 What are the differences in gratifications obtained and WeChat use between young men and women?

3

Method

3.1 Sample and sampling procedures The majority of samples were drawn from young adults in China (N = 170). The online surveys were conducted in July 2014. These samples were chosen by a combined convenience and snowball sampling method. The study established a list of names that are suitable to participate in this study and then sent those young people (age 18 to 30) individual message through QQ or Renren to invite them to fill out the online questionnaire, which is on http://www.wenjuan.com/. At last, a total of 170 surveys were completed, 60% (N = 102) were males and 40% (N = 68) were females. Among them,


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147 (86.5%) were WeChat users and 23 were non-users (13.5%). Young people were chosen as the target sample in the study because they are more likely to access to the internet and use new media. It terms of education level, 52.4% of the participants having master degree (n = 89), followed by 37.6% with bachelor degree (n = 64), 7.6% with junior college degree (n = 13) and 1.8% high school degree (n = 3), and 0.6% junior high school degree (n = 1).

3.2 Measure variables 3.2.1 WeChat use To assess WeChat use behaviour respondents were asked to: 1

how many days they use WeChat in a typical week

2

the average number of hours they spend on WeChat session.

Meanwhile, in order to obtain a measure of participants’ experience with the site, they were asked also how long they had been using WeChat. Table 1

Gratifications sought for using WeChat (percentage)

Individual items

Questionnaire dataa

Friend suggested it

55.1

Everyone I know is on WeChat

84.4

Help others keep in touch with me

63.3

Received a promotional e-mail

25.9

Get to know more people

34.7

Find useful information

52.4

The widespread expansion of network

70.1

Find dates

14.3

Find people with mutual interests

23.1

Find jobs

5.4

Follow the fashion

31.3

For fun

52.4

Save electricity, online traffic and telephone charges

55.1

Scan QR code

48.3

Others

37.4

Notes: N = 147. a Percentage of participants in the questionnaire who responded ‘yes’ to the item.

3.2.2 Gratifications sought from WeChat use To measure motivations or reasons why young people use WeChat, the study measured gratifications sought from a retrospective standpoint. As no prior scale of gratifications sought was located in the literature, it adopted a measurement covering gratifications that users sought from the usage of Facebook (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010). The items used by Quan-Haase and Young (2010) are applicable to the present study because both

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WeChat and Facebook are used for social purposes and therefore similar gratifications are expected to motivate young people’s use. Additional items such as ‘save electricity, online traffic and telephone charges’ and ‘scan QR code’ were added to the investigation. Thus, the study measure totally included 14 relevant items, which covered a wide range of motivations that respondents could choose from. Respondents were asked to state whether they use WeChat because the following reasons on yes or no scale (1 = yes, 0 = no) (see Table 1). Table 2

Factor analysis (principal components, varimax rotation) for WeChat gratifications

I use WeChat……

Mean

SD

Because it relaxes me

3.28

Because it makes me feel less tense

3.3

Factors 1

2

3

4

1.175

0.862

0.185

0.12

0.145

1.184

0.829

0.194

0.138 0.241

Pastime

Because it is a pleasant rest

2.9

1.218

0.762

0.141

Because it is fun

3.3

1.167

0.723

0.388

0.141

Because it actually helps me to get away from pressures and responsibilities

3.18

1.182

0.712

0.23

0.273

0.142

To show others encouragement

3.16

1.203

0.139

0.826

0.261

0.152

To help others

3.03

1.224

0.165

0.804

0.289

0.103

To thank people

3.19

1.207

0.163

0.754

0.24

0.109

Because I am concerned about them

3.61

1.156

0.341

0.737

To let others know that I care about their feelings

3.17

1.241

0.232

0.695

0.229

0.198

To be less inhabited chatting with strangers

2.74

1.288

0.253

0.738

0.313

To make friends of opposite sex

2.65

1.275

–0.106

0.232

0.692

0.349

To meet people (new acquaintances)

2.67

1.235

0.21

0.336

0.682

0.108

To look stylish

2.93

1.186

0.162

0.15

0.293

0.847

To look fashionable

3.05

1.181

0.253

0.153

0.295

0.84

To not look old-fashioned

3.29

1.166

0.301

0.156

0.257

0.713

Eigenvalue

11.82

2.27

1.92

1.52

Variance explained%

45.47

8.74

7.39

5.85

Cronbach’s alpha

0.912

0.9

0.83

0.923

0.289

Affection

0.201

Sociability

Fashion

Notes: The scale used: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree.


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3.2.3 Gratifications obtained from WeChat use In order to measure gratifications obtained from WeChat use, the present study followed the approach based on Palmgreen et al. (1980), who distinguished between the measurement of gratifications sought and obtained. In their study, gratifications obtained were measured after gratifications sought. Meanwhile, the measurements assessing the social gratifications were adapted and modified from prior U&G research on new media in Hong Kong, because of Hong Kong’s geographic and psychological proximity to Mainland China (Leung, 2001). The same items used to measure were used to assess, but were slightly changed. For instance, the first statement ‘To get away from pressures and responsibilities’ was changed into ‘Because it actually helps me to get away from pressures and responsibilities’ to measure. The same 26 items that were used to measure gratification obtained were included in the survey questionnaire (see Table 2). Respondents were asked to reply using the same five-point scale to measure gratifications sought (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).

3.2.4 Demographics Personal data such as gender, and education level were asked. The factor ‘current educational level’ was categorised into five categories according to China’s current education system: junior high school, senior high school, junior college, undergraduate and postgraduate.

3.3 Data analytical procedures Firstly, a principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was applied to examine and extract the dimensions of gratifications obtained from WeChat. Based on the results of the factor loadings, means, standard deviations as well as Cronbach’s alpha were gauged for each factor. Secondly, ordinary least squares regression analyses was conducted, which focused on examining predictive influence of the four gratification factors on WeChat usage behaviours. Frequency of WeChat use in a typical week and average number of hours spent on WeChat session were treated as dependent variables. Finally, discriminant analysis was run to examine whether a difference existed between male and female in gratifications obtained and WeChat usage behaviours.

4

Results

4.1 WeChat use In terms of WeChat usage behaviours among young adult, respondents reported that they had been using WeChat from one month to more than six month (M = 4.02 months, SD =1.44). When asked how often they use WeChat on a typical week, 69.4% reported that they use on a daily basis, 12.2% for three to four times a week, and 11.6% use five to six times a week. The data (M = 3.34 days, SD =1.08) shows that respondents use WeChat extensively, logging into their accounts between three and four times per week. The mean time spent on WeChat session is 1.72 hours, which indicates that young people

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who have grown up with the new media are very active users of WeChat in their interpersonal mediated communication.

4.2 Gratifications sought from using WeChat 84.4% of questionnaire participants stated that their primary motivation for using WeChat was that ‘Everyone I know is on WeChat’ (see Table 1). WeChat is deemed as winning a high popularity among Chinese, youngsters in particular. This motivation can be explained that young people have a need to become one part of the peer group and a larger societal trend (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010). By using this new social networking site, people are able to connect on a deeper level with each other, by contrast, not adopting it might mean being ousted from this network of friendship circles. The second motivation chosen frequently (70.1%) was ‘The widespread expansion of network’. It is not surprising that the development and popularisation of the internet has made it possible for young people to communicate with one another conveniently and effectively, anyone can at any time download, install and use WeChat to interact fastly. As Prof. Susan Moeller said, “Technology provides the social network for young people today and they have spent their entire lives being ‘plugged in’” (Hough, 2011). The third item respondents chose most often (63.3%) was ‘Help others to keep in touch with me’. This item reflect a need for social connectivity that is because meeting through WeChat allows users to find, connect, and communicate with one another and to be part of the larger online virtual community, considering that social media’s primary purpose is as a venue for social connectivity (Lenhart et al., 2007). This item was followed by ‘Friend suggested it’, and ‘Save electricity, online traffic and telephone charges’, they both share the same proportion (55.1%). The item ‘Friend suggested it’ is also important because of once a person has used WeChat, he or she feels a need to communicate with his or her friends over WeChat and hence recommends others to use it. This approved the analysis in diffusion of innovations theory, which has shown that new technologies and forms of behaviours are transmitted through social networks (Young, 2006). In addition, the item ‘Save electricity, online traffic and telephone charges’, indicates that economic factor is also not allowed to neglect. Table 1 displays that all other categorised motivations for using WeChat was chosen much less frequently by respondents.

4.3 Gratifications obtained from WeChat use A total of 26 gratification statements were included in the first analysis. Factor analysis yield five interpretable factors with eigenvalues greater than one. However, the scree plot showed that four factors together explained 67% of the rotated solution’s variance in the response. And these four factors on which three or more items had a primary loading of at least reaching 0.60 with no secondary loading of more than 0.40 were reserved. But items that cross-loaded on more than one latent factors or did not contribute to a factor were dropped for the further analysis. As a result, a stable four-factor final model of WeChat gratifications obtained was identified based on the factor analysis with eigenvalues greater than 1.0, explaining 67% of the common variance (see Table 2). Factor 1, pastime, comprises five items measuring young people’s use of WeChat as a good place for people both relaxation and amusement for getting away from responsibilities and pressures and providing a form of entertainment. The eigenvalue is 11.83 and the factor explains 45.47% of the total variance in the rotated solution. The


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mean for most of these items was high, suggesting that these represented key gratifications obtained by young adult. Two key gratifications were ‘Because it makes me feel less tense’ (M = 3.30, SD = 1.184) and ‘Because it relaxes me’ (M = 3.28, SD = 1.175), showing how young people see WeChat as a great way to relieve stress and tension. Factor 2, affection, consists of five items displaying a use for WeChat motivated by expressing concern and friendship toward other people (eigenvalue = 2.27, variance explained = 8.74%). One significant item was ‘Because I am concerned about them’ (M = 3.61, SD = 1.156), indicating that for young people, care and attention of others is important because only after coming to know others that one can better maintain friendship. Factor 3, Sociability (eigenvalue = 1.92, variance explained = 7.39%), includes three items measuring an individual’s willingness to use technology as a mean to meet new people and overcome social inhibitions. Fashion was the last factor identified (eigenvalue = 1.52, variance explained = 5.85%) and items such as ‘To look stylish’, ‘To look fashionable’, and ‘To not look old-fashioned’ loaded high on this factor. These three items measure the extent to how WeChat helps its users appear fashionable and stylish among their peers. Table 3

Ordinary least squares regression analysis of predicting WeChat usage WeChat usage

Variable

Frequency of

Time spent on

WeChat use per week

Each WeChat session

Beta

p

Beta

p

Demographics Gender

0.98

0.25

0.125

0.141

Education

0.68

0.408

–0.124

0.127

0.215

0.009**

0.063

0.434

Affection

0.196

0.016*

0.273

.001**

Sociability

–0.065

0.429

0.056

0.49

Fashion

0.08

0.322

0.153

0.056

Adjusted R2

0.075

0.09

Gratifications Pastime

Notes: Table shows standardised coefficients from regression models 1 and 2. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.

4.4 Predicting WeChat use We used ordinary least squares regression analysis to test the association between the four gratification factors and the usage of WeChat (see Table 3). Demographic variables (gender and education level) were added and treated as control variables in both models. The first model included the frequency of WeChat use per week and the second model consisted of average amount of time spent on each WeChat session as the dependent variable. Regression model one shows neither gender nor education level association with WeChat usage. In this model, both pastime activity (β = 0.215, p < 0.01), and affection (β = 0.196, p < 0.05) show positive relationships with frequency of WeChat use. And the relationship between pass time and the frequency WeChat use per week was significant.

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When all the variables were entered, model one account for 7.5% of the variance in the frequency of WeChat use. The second regression model shows no association of gender or age with the time spending on each WeChat session. Only affection (β = 0.273, p < 0.01) is significantly and positively correlated with the amount time of spent on each WeChat session. Obviously, motivation of affection becomes the same predictor of frequency of WeChat use and time spent on each WeChat session. Ordinary least squares regression analysis indicates that the independent variables explain a total of 9% of variance in average time spend on each WeChat session. The gratifications obtained explain more variance in time spend on each WeChat session than the frequency of WeChat use. This suggests that more time spend on each session and the more often use per week predict whether young people will gratify a need to show concern and friendship toward others on WeChat, and that this correlation still exists when the effects of demographic variables were controlled for. Table 4

Discriminant analysis of gender with gratifications and WeChat usage as predictors

Predictors

Structure coefficients

Gratifications Pastime

–0.489*

Affection

0.420*

Sociability

0.568*

Fashion

0.122

WeChat usage Frequency of WeChat use

–0.296

Time spent on each WeChat session (hour)

–0.258

Group centroids Male

0.29

Female

–0.446

Eigenvalue

0.131

Canonical correlation

0.341

Degree of freedom

6

Wilks’ Lambda

0.884

Significance

0.008

Cases correctly classified

66.00%

Notes: This discriminant analysis is used stepwise method. Gender was coded: Male = 1, Female = 2. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.

4.5 Gratifications obtained, WeChat usage and gender differences The last research used discriminant analysis method to explore if there were any differences in gratifications obtained and WeChat usage behaviours between male and female. In this study, gratifications obtained and WeChat usage behaviours were treated


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as predictors. Table 4 shows that female users were more likely to log in WeChat account for pass time rather than for fashion, sociability well as affection reasons. In addition, young women tend to use WeChat more often in a typical week than men. In terms of the average time spend on each WeChat session, classification functions of coefficient indicates that women spend just a little longer time on each WeChat session. In contrast, affection, sociability and fashion motivated the use of WeChat by male, who seemed to spend less time in each session and use less. This finding indicates that young women use WeChat to satisfy their entertainment and relaxation needs, while male use it primarily for interpersonal communication and follow fashion. Perhaps that is because most of young men keen on new technology in the internet age, they are most likely motivated by the fact that WeChat enables them to show concern about other and follow social trend with their peers. Besides, discriminant results affirm that the function correctly classified 66.0% of the cases.

5

Discussion

5.1 Implications In recent years, the widespread diffusion of WeChat has drawn the attention of researchers, leading to more scholar begin to focus on uses and social implications of it. Although the increased interest into WeChat, only a few of exploratory research focused on it. Based on data collected from online survey and prior research on new media technology, the present study fills this void by investigating the usage of WeChat in terms of the gratifications sought and obtained within the theoretical framework of U&G. On the basis of these findings, the study found that among the 14 items of different individual’s gratifications sought, ‘Everyone I know is on WeChat’ with the highest percent (84.4%), followed by the item ‘The widespread expansion of network’ (70.1%). This indicates that young people’s primary motivation for using WeChat was to communicant and connection with their friends. The result is consistent with previous internet community research. Social factors are more significant in determining intentional social action (Cheung and Lee, 2009). In addition, internet connect people with friends and others who work, study, and live around them by acting as a functional alternative to face-to-face interaction (Papacharissi and Rubin, 2000). Especially with the growing popularity of the wireless network, it provides more flexibility for people to log in WeChat at anytime and anywhere via computer or mobile phone. Therefore, those gratifications sought lead to adoption and usage of WeChat by young people, through this way they are able to be active members of their community by reaching out to their peer network. The most striking finding from the analysis is that four distinct factors were identified through factor analysis: pastime, affection, sociability and fashion. Among them, young people use WeChat primarily as a pastime activity: to have fun, to relax, and to provide a form of escape from everyday pressures and responsibilities in real life. A second key factor is showing affection toward others. This may be because the fact that WeChat is used to provide and receive social and emotional support from friends. In this way, interpersonal conversation exchanges over WeChat allowing for communication partners to engage in deeper exchanges with a sense of affection. Sociability as the third key gratification obtained from WeChat. These ﬁndings are consistent with earlier studies on

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media use (Leung and Wei, 1998). A potential reason why users flocked to register WeChat accounts may be because WeChat allows them to know and meet more friends or strangers with less effort. It is worth mentioning that besides those three key gratifications obtained, the study has found that fashion is acting as an indispensable factor of WeChat usage. Not surprisingly, this gratifications obtained was may well derived from peer pressure. Overall, the results corroborates with the related research on technology adoption, which indicates that people’ needs are the primary determining factors (Chang et al., 2006). We conclude that, in particular for young users, these needs are important driving forces of adoption new media and technology. This study also examined gratification predictors for the frequency of WeChat use as well as average time spend on each WeChat session. When demographic differences and education level are controlled, it seems that WeChat use is accurately predicted by affection. These conclusions reinforce the ideas offered in U&G theory due to it endorses the idea that those who use WeChat more frequently and spend more time on each session facilitate computer-mediated relationships that enable people to gratify their need to express affection for others. Consistent with earlier findings in the U&G of the internet usage, affection gratifications were found to be one of the strongest predictors (Papacharissi and Rubin, 2000). However, with the development of technology, more functions on WeChat would appear in the near future, some other gratification predictors such as information seeking and convenience utility are likely to become increasingly significant. Meanwhile, as Leung (2001) stated that, a mix of interpersonal and mass media gratifications will become more apparent. As a matter of fact, these changes to user gratification conform to the trend of the third generation mobile communication technology. Moreover, social groups experience a given new media technology differently because of their differences in social structures. Gender exemplifies such kinds of differences (Wei and Lo, 2006). In this empirical study, gender differences in media use were observed with young women WeChat users using longer and more frequently for reasons of pass time while men spending less time on each session for affection, sociability and fashion needs. Primarily, males use WeChat to show concern or to seek affection and to socialise with friends while females use WeChat to avoided liability and relieve pressure. This seems to be explained by the reason that males were more experienced and possessed of higher skill levels with the internet than females (Schumacher and Morahan-Martin, 2001), they are able to use different functions of new media to satisfy their needs.

5.2 Limitations and recommendations for future research Before addressing the recommendation for future research, it is important to state that the empirical study has a number of limitations that provide opportunities for future work. In consideration of the measurement of gratifications sought, the questionnaire only covered a limited number of items. This may be insufficient for investigating various gratifications sought in this study. Therefore, the assessment of gratifications sought could be added more items. Another limitation of this study is the use of a relatively small numbers of samples. In terms of education, the academic levels of samples are relatively high with 90% having bachelor or master degrees. This is likely due to the fact


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that China has experienced a higher education revolution in the past decade, with the number of young people gaining bachelor’s degrees as well as advanced college degrees rising from a few hundred thousand a year to many millions (Sharma, 2014). Against that backdrop, more and more young people in China have access to receive higher education. Thus, the findings drawn from the present study might not be generalisable to all Chinese young population. In addition, this study did not apply the same statistical analysis across all groups, especially for the small sample size of the non-user group. In fact, the reason of why young people do not use WeChat and the difference between users and non-users is worthy of consideration and investigation in the future study. To overcome this limitation, future research need to study a wider group of participants, and identify reasons of non-users compared to users. The final limitation is that the study is oriented towards just one particular kind of online communication from one single country, whereas different kinds of media may be associated with different types of motives and usage behaviours for people from different countries. As Malinen and Nurkka (2015) stated, national background appears to play an important role in users’ relationship to social networking sites, collaboration, and in the emergence of community behaviours and feelings in general. Therefore, this limitation makes it difficult to make generalisations about other patterns of social media and cross-cultural differences (Brandtzaeg et al., 2010). However, the findings demonstrate the significance and applicability of the U&G theoretical framework in studying new interactive media like WeChat in the context of China, and pave the way for more research of this kind. More importantly, this study could be extended to understand the cross-cultural differences in the motivations and gratifications in China and those in other countries. Future research should therefore focus on how and why people use various social media platforms like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube in different regions under the framework of U&G build upon the present study. In the end, the present research only is a ‘microcosm’ of WeChat users. With the growth of new technologies, it has posed new challenges for understanding of social relationships both in cyberspace and in general. Thus, further work should consider the possibility of researching the development of use WeChat over time. In particular, it would be of interest to see how people’s U&G changes with WeChat develop by using integrated and mixed method approach of study (Graffigna and Riva, 2015). It is should be noted that the increasing complexity of WeChat communication environment means that people will have more choices and options than in the past. Accordingly, a number of additional new dimensions of U&G associated with WeChat experience may substitute the present factors (pastime, affection, sociability and fashion), and become the more powerful factors in the use of the new media in future. Moreover, in the increasingly user-generated web, users’ personality traits may be key factors leading them to join in this participatory media (Correa et al., 2010). Based on these theoretical perspectives, researchers should not only examine what factors affect WeChat adoption, but also pay attention the characteristics of users and non-users of WeChat. Although there are some shortcomings in this research, the present paper using the theory of U&G provides an empirically developed measurement tool for future research. In addition, this research makes contribution to the field of communication and media study with a wealth of knowledge about the ever expanding world of WeChat.

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