An Empirical Study On Factors Affecting Continuance Intention Of Using WeChat

As the first super entrance to the Internet,WeChat has never stopped innovating its functions and now has completed the integration between the horizontal development and vertical excavation.On the one hand,WeChat continues exploring innovative functions.Initially,WeChat only was the instant message service with functions of text,voice,vedio as well as photo,and then accomplished the conversion from the instant message service to the social network site with the exploration of 'Moment'','Shake','People Nearby' and so on.Eventually,WeChat turns into the integrative and serving media followed by the derivative of serving function-'Official Accounts','Wallet','Mini Programs'and so on.On the other hand,WeChat constantly upgrades the existing functions and proposes the optimization methods to meet the changing needs of users.From the native phrase which mainly provides the basic function to the systemically ecological phrase which achieves a connection between equipment and our society,the influence of WeChat extends to mostly all fields gradually.However,with more developers launching new social APPs,users have plentiful opportunities to access them,how to retain existing users has become important for WeChat providers.This raised some issues for this study:How satisfied are users with WeChat?Will users continue using WeChat they are currently using ? What are the major factors influencing users' post?acceptance usage of WeChat?To answer the above research questions,this paper proposes a research framework of WeChat continuance intention based on the the Expection and Confirmation Model(ECM).Firstly,from the information system's perspective,the thesis develops the research model ? referred to the Media Richness Theory.As such,satisfaction is adopted to explain users' continuance intention,the richness of the content of information,the description of information as well as the way of expression are applied to explain users' satisfaction.Secondly,from the user's perspective,the paper utilizes the TAM as the basic framework to construct the research model ?.In addition,we also assume that continuance intention is influenced by other factors which are generally considered as motivations of behavioral outcomes.Therefore,perceived enjoyment,perceived cost,perceived risk and network externality are applied in the context of WeChat.Through empirical analysis and statistic discussion from 326 valid questionnaires,twelve out of fifteen hypotheses are supported.This indicates that the two research models provide good explanatory powers to meet the research purpose.The results provide insights into the relationship between the continuance intention of WeChat and its antecedents.These offer five theoretical contribution : that(1)Satisfaction have a significantly positive influence on user' continuance intention.Amog three aspects of media richness,both the description of information and the way of expression positively influence satisfaction while the weaker influence of the content of information can be attributed to the fact that the WeChat's rich content may not necessarily increase the level of users' satisfaction.(2)satisfaction and network externality are the most important factors affecting the decision of continuing to use WeChat.One of these two factors,satisfaction has a higher direct influence on continuance intention to use WeChat.If users have favorable feelings toward WeChat,they will be motivated to continue using that social media.(3)Users' satisfaction with We Chat is derived from three factors,namely,perceived usefulness,perceived enjoyment and perceived risk.The result shows that users are not only concerned with the utilitarian and hedonic value of WeChat,but also care about the risk assessment such as private security and economic security.(4)Influenced actively by perceived ease of use,users' perceived enjoyment become more positive.Meanwhile,perceived cost has insignificant effects on users' perceived enjoyment.(5)Influenced actively by perceived ease of use,users'perceived usefulness become more positive.Meanwhile,perceived cost has significantly negative effects on users' perceived enjoyment.Finally,in order to make for the future development of the WeChat,this paper put forward suggestions for the providers.