Uses And Gratifications Research Of Users Of WeChat

With the continuous development of information technology, mobile internetbrings us a new experience of information life that the ubiquitous network, ever fasterconnection speed, the growing popularity of mobile devices that are coming into ourlives.The appearance of Tencent WeChat in2011provided us a new way to broadcastinformation,coupled with a different pattern for people’s social communication.In this paper, the Tencent WeChat is taken as a research object, taking the “Usesand Gratifications” theory which is studying on the needs of the audience as thetheoretical foundation. First, from the commuincation point of view, define theTencent WeChat, and then summarize its development course and media features,investigate the usage of Tencent WeChat among college users by the way ofquestionnaire survey. According to the statistical results of the survey to analyze thehabits and general characteristics of the college users in using Tencent WeChat, andtake in-depth interviews with heavy college users, analyze the influence on theaudience’s media contact behavior and motivation according to the “Uses andGratifications” theory. The preliminary analysis concluded that Tencent WeChat usersof college students’ needs mainly come from information, perception ofenvironmental and some other basic needs. In the meanwhile, they also want torealize some high levels of demand, which comibines social needs, entertainmentalneeds, self-actualization and so on.However, there are still problems on Tencent WeChat meeting users’ needs, forexample, information leakage resulted in damaging the users’ interests, informationoverload reduced the users’ experience, there exists security risks in making friendswith strangers. In order to improve users’ experience and meet users’ needs better, weshould perfect legal mechanisms, strengthen supervision, improve media literacy, andstrengthen self-discipline, try to provide valuable reference for exploring the road of abenign development of WeChat, and the future development of WeChat.