Examining WeChat users Article Review - Book Report/Review Example

Submitted: Article Review In the article “Examining WeChat users’ motivation, trust, attitudes, and positive word-of-mouth: Evidence from China,” the authors Che Hui Lien and Yang Cao raise the issue of social media’s effect on personality. They had chosen the case of WeChat users in China. In particular, the authors refer to the importance of social media in contemporary interpersonal interactions. As for WeChat, it enables instant messaging in form of both texts and voice calls. In fact, this social network is the most popular one in China.

There, national government blocks most of the other common for the rest of the world social media (like Facebook and Twitter). Thus, Lien and Cao investigate psychological motivations of WeChat users, as this social platform in the most influential one in China. To start with, the authors reviewed available literature and created theoretical background for their research. In particular, the determining motivation in choosing social media platform is mostly need for entertainment, alongside with information, sociality, and conformity factors1.

Based on this, authors developed their hypotheses. In detail, they investigated positive influence of entertainment, sociality, information and trust on attitudes towards the use of WeChat; moreover, Lien and Cao expected that positive attitude increases the level of positive word-of-mouth communication2. Furthermore, the authors conducted a research to investigate the above-mentioned hypotheses. Sample formed from 264 responses on two-section questionnaire from young active Wechat users based in Shanghai.

Among the respondents, most of them were females (64.6%), single (94.3%) and well-educated (76.1%)3. The results of the measurement appeared in confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with using AMOS 18 to find significant relations between analyzed variables. In short, entertainment, sociality, information and trust have significant positive effect and they are important predictors of attitudes4. In conclusion, the authors state that WeChat is a good source for receiving important information. In addition, it serves to sociality and entertainment in terms of chatting and connecting with friends.

Finally, it develops trust through commenting on products/services. In Chinese example, practical evidence of these positive effects is in sharing red envelope via WeChat during Chinese New Year. Specifically, it is a money reward, fun and communication at once5. Thus, this social network proves to have all the necessary components to form positive attitudes among Chinese users. In my opinion, this article explains well why Chinese people use WeChat so often. Even though Lien and Cao do not compare this social media with other globally popular social platforms with similar features (like WhatsApp and Facebook), they assist understanding why WeChat replaced them in China.

However, the demographics of respondents represents only a small group within Chinese society. Hence, the article does not explain whether the other people in China find WeChat as good for them as the respondents in this article. Bibliography Che Hui Lien and Yang Cao, “Examining WeChat users’ motivations, trust, attitudes, and positive word-of-mouth: Evidence from China,” Computers in Human Behavior 41 (2014): 104-111