Empirical Research On WeChat Users' Avoidance Of In-feed Advertising

In recent years,with the popularization of the mobile Internet and the development of social media,in-feed advertising with social attributes has gradually emerged,causing widespread concern among companies and academia.In China,social media,represented by WeChat,has a large user base,powerful interactive attributes,and massive data resources,laying a solid foundation for the flow capabilities,product capabilities,and technical capabilities required for in-feed advertising.Since the official launch of in-feed advertising in January 2015,WeChat has attracted international brands including BMW,Chanel,and KFC.In further,the local promotion has increased the number and type of companies.However,with the increase of WeChat in-feed advertisements,many users exhibit different levels of advertising avoidance,which greatly reduce the exposure and effectiveness of advertisements.Therefore,how to reduce the advertising avoidance of in-feed advertisements and improve in-feed advertising effectiveness has become the focus of the WeChat platform,companies and academia.Based on the literature review and the specific attributes of WeChat,this study constructed an empirical model for WeChat users' in-feed advertising avoidance.Subsequently,based on the existing mature scale,SPSS24.0 and AMOS24.0 statistical software was used to conduct empirical analysis on the primary data collected from the questionnaire survey.Firstly,descriptive statistical analysis was used to understand the sample profile.Secondly,the scale was performed.Based on the analysis of reliability and validity,this research constructed a structural equation model with three dimensions of the WeChat in-feed advertisements' features,two dimensions of interactivity,two dimensions of mediation variables,and two dimensions of advertising avoidance.Based on the analysis of this model,we used Bootstrap to further analyze the role of mediation.Finally,we analyzed the regulatory role of WeChat's other advertising and privacy concerns,and tested the research hypothesis based on the results.Through the above analysis,this study determined the final model of WeChat users' advertising avoidance of in-feed advertisement,and reached the following four main conclusions:(1)WeChat users will generate advertisement avoidance responses when they receive in-feed advertisements;(2)Features of WeChat in-feed advertising have both direct and indirect negative impact on advertising avoidance;(3)Enterprise interaction and friend interaction also positively affect the interactivity of WeChat in-feed advertisements;(4)WeChat other advertising and privacy concerns have a significant negative regulatory effect.According to the conclusion,the author put forward suggestions to WeChat platforms and enterprises from the perspective of user experience,for the consistency,interactivity,and accuracy of WeChat in-feed advertising,as well as privacy protection and advertisement management.This research enriches the theoretical research of in-feed advertising and advertisement avoidance to a certain extent,and proposes relevant suggestions for reducing in-feed advertisement avoidance,thereby providing references for the practice of WeChat platform and enterprises.