The Influence Mechanism of Users’ Willingness to Donate to Content Creators in Social Media

Abstract

As an incentive mechanism, donation to content creators in social media has become popular in China. This mechanism is greatly conducive to encourage social media content creators to release high-quality content. However, there has been little academic research about this donation behavior of social media users. This study attempts to explore factors affecting users’ willingness to donate to content creators. The results indicate that the intensity of users’ habit of free use of Internet has a significant negative effect on user donation attitude, and users’ perception of welfare of donation has a significant positive effect. User donation attitude, collective norms, and perceived behavior control have significant positive effects on users’ willingness to donation.