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How mobile messaging apps users share information on WeChat: The role of demographic variables

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Purpose: We conducted an empirical study to find out the role of demographic variables in affecting information sharing behaviors of college student users of WeChat. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey was carried out to investigate the relationship between demographic variables (gender, grade level, dating status, and singleparent family background) and information sharing behaviors of WeChat users. The participants were college students and a total of 255 valid questionnaires were collected. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Findings: Grade level and single-parent family background were found to be significantly correlated with information sharing behaviors whereas no effect of gender was found on information sharing behaviors. Dating status had no significant impact on user browsing behavior, but was related to users' publishing posts and posting replies. Implications: The study will help understand individual differences in information sharing among WeChat users. Limitations: First, the relatively small sample size is a limitation in exploring the effects of demographic variables on user information sharing behaviors. Second, this study only used questionnaire surveys to collect data and more research methods such as interviews should be adopted to improve the accuracy of the study results. Originality/value: This paper is one of the first studies to explore the relationship between demographic variables and user information sharing behaviors on WeChat.

Demographic variableInformation sharingWeChatMobile messaging appsCollege student

Shengli DENG、Yanqing LIN

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Center for Studies of Information Resources, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China

This research is jointly supported by the National Social Science Foundation of ChinaWuhan University Academic Development Plan for Scholars born after the 1970s for the project of “research on Internet user behavWuhan University Postgraduate English Course on Internet User Behavior and Luo Jia Youth Scholar of Wuhan University

Grant No.: 14BTQ044

2015

中国文献情报(英文刊)

中国文献情报(英文刊)

ISSN：
年,卷(期)：2015.8(4)
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