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Abstract
Purpose – User-generated content (UGC) refers to semantic and behavioral traces created by users on various social media platforms. While several waves of platforms have come and gone, the long-term sustainability of UGC activities has become a critical question that bears significance for theoretical understanding and social media practices.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on a large and lengthy dataset of both blogging and microblogging activities of the same set of users, a multistate survival analysis was applied to explore the patterns of users' staying, switching and multiplatforming behaviors, as well as the underlying driving factors.
Findings – UGC activities are generally unsustainable in the long run, and natural attrition is the primary reason, rather than competitive switching to new platforms. The availability of leisure time, expected gratification and previous experiences drive users' sustainability.
Originality/value – The authors adopted actual behavioral data from two generations of platforms instead of survey data on users' switching intentions. Four types of users are defined: loyal, switcher, multiplatformer and dropout. As measured by the transitions among the four states, the different sustainability behaviors are thereby studied via an integrated framework. These two originalities bridge gaps in the literature and offer new insights into exploring user sustainability in social media.
© Emerald Publishing Limited
Design/methodology/approach – Based on a large and lengthy dataset of both blogging and microblogging activities of the same set of users, a multistate survival analysis was applied to explore the patterns of users' staying, switching and multiplatforming behaviors, as well as the underlying driving factors.
Findings – UGC activities are generally unsustainable in the long run, and natural attrition is the primary reason, rather than competitive switching to new platforms. The availability of leisure time, expected gratification and previous experiences drive users' sustainability.
Originality/value – The authors adopted actual behavioral data from two generations of platforms instead of survey data on users' switching intentions. Four types of users are defined: loyal, switcher, multiplatformer and dropout. As measured by the transitions among the four states, the different sustainability behaviors are thereby studied via an integrated framework. These two originalities bridge gaps in the literature and offer new insights into exploring user sustainability in social media.
© Emerald Publishing Limited
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1372-1398 |
Journal | Internet Research |
Volume | 33 |
Issue number | 4 |
Online published | 22 Jul 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 17 Jul 2023 |
Funding
The study was partially supported by GRF 11505119 from Hong Kong RGC, CCR 9360120 and HKIDS 9360163 from City University of Hong Kong, and a Key Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China (19ZDA324).
Research Keywords
- Multistate survival analysis
- Push-pull-mooring
- Time availability
- User-generated content (UGC)
- Uses and gratifications
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Staying, switching, and multiplatforming of user-generated content activities: a 12-year panel study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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GRF: Assessing Conceptual and Empirical Contributions of Social Media Research Based on Knowledge Graph
ZHU, J. H. J. (Principal Investigator / Project Coordinator), PENG, W. T. (Co-Investigator) & ZHAO, W. X. (Co-Investigator)
1/08/19 → 10/01/23
Project: Research