Understanding the users' continuous adoption of 3D social virtual world in China: A comparative case study

Internet-based 3D social virtual world (SVW) is a special social media with 3D interface, open-ended, immersive, and collaborative nature, which has attracted interest among researchers and practitioners alike. This Chinese 3D SVW market developed for nearly 8 years, from 2005 to 2013. After the initiation stage (05-09), some new tendencies occurred in the maintenance stage (09-13). Some local SVWs (e.g.; HiPiHi) held advantages in attracting users in the early stage but failed in the maintenance stage, but other companies (e.g.; Uworld) attracted users' continuous adoption and commitment in long-term competition. Based on customer commitment theory and diffusion of innovation theory, we established a theoretical framework to explain how virtual world strategies impact on short-term and long-term customer commitment. Based on qualitative data (e.g.; longitude observation and third-party report), this research compares two major competitors' strategies in Chinese virtual world market (i.e.; HiPiHi and Uworld), and analyzes how their strategies succeeded or failed to attract users' long-term commitment. The findings suggest there is a "S-curve" for adoption rate of SVW users, and there is a "critical timeframe" for persuading users' continuous adoptions. Social virtual worlds should try to encourage users to reduce personalization and learning cost in the short-term, after which they can then change the "vicious circle" to "virtuous circle." © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.