Understanding the continuous usage of mobile payment integrated into social media platform: The case of WeChat Pay

Abstract

WeChat Pay has proven extremely popular among consumers in the growing market of China. This paper explores the influencing factors upon its continued use. Both the survey data from 568 WeChat Pay users and semi-structured interview with 30 interviewees were utilized. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, this paper constructs a model to understand how social influence and platform factors affect users’ perceived value and satisfaction and, ultimately, influence their continuous usage intention of WeChat Pay. It reveals that social influence and platform factors can indirectly promote continuous usage intention through perceived value (PV), which consists of tangible functional values and intangible values (i.e., perceived entertainment value, interactive value and social value). Especially, intangible values have a much stronger impact on users’ satisfactions than tangible value. The perceived entertainment value from Red Envelope games is the strongest factor of PV. Several implications for academia and practitioners are offered.