Keywords

1 Introduction

Social media have begun creating an ecosystem for businesses and entertainment. For example, Facebook plans to transform Messenger into a platform where users can communicate with business and buy things [1]. Indeed, the cashless economy is already popular in China. Released in 2011, WeChat is a mobile instant messaging application developed by Tencent. It has added various functions such as online-to-offline services, advertising, e-commerce, social games, and finance. In 2016, there exist over 800 million monthly active users in WeChat [2]. About a third of WeChat users apply WeChat payments to make regular online purchases [3].

WeChat also brings the tradition of giving cash-filled lucky money into digital. Giving lucky money is a Chinese tradition for certain festive occasions. People send lucky money to families and friends on festivals or some other special events such as weddings. WeChat lucky money is designed as an in-app function. People can send lucky money to an individual or a group through WeChat lucky money. On 2016 Spring Festival Eve, more than 400 million users sent 8 billion packets of digital lucky money to their families and friends [4]. WeChat lucky money also turns out to be a useful marketing tool for Internet services such as taxi and food delivery apps. These apps use lucky money as coupons to attract customers.

Meanwhile, WeChat sees a shift in the demographics of the user base and sets its sights on globalization. A quarter of WeChat users are already non-Chinese [5]. On 2016 Spring Festival, WeChat brought the Chinese custom of lucky money to New York pedestrians [6]. This event thrilled passers-by and educated people from all over the world about this joyful custom and festive atmosphere. Other social media also try to involve in the online gift services. However, Facebook shut down the gift services, which allowed users to send digital cards to their friends [7]. Facebook still explores new ways to help businesses drive sales on Facebook. It is critical to explore how international users use social media in China.

This study used WeChat lucky money as an example of social gifting in social me-dia. The behavior of giving money is rare in other social media. Some researchers has already used Wechat lucky money platform to investigate users’ gifting behaviors [8]. The current study offers new insights to the globalization of social media. Social media help users adapt to new environment through communication. Previous research reveals that interpersonal communication is essential to the outcome of the adjustment process [9]. When people start new life in a new culture, they will receive challenges from language barriers, relational issues, loneliness and racial discrimination [10, 11]. Prior research also demonstrates the great potential of social media to help international students adapt to a new culture. For example, exchanging and viewing messages in online newsgroups and on bulletin boards helped Chinese immigrants adapt to the new life in the United States [12]. The frequency of using Facebook was also found to positively predict Chinese students’ bridging social capital [13].

Do international users accept the lucky money in social media? Does international users’ cultural background influence their acceptance of the lucky money in social media? This study aims at answering these questions and offering suggestions for the design of global social media and social games.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Culture and Social Media Usage

Individual motivations are culture bound. Previous research highlighted the effect of culture on everything from attitudes to motivations to needs and how to fulfil needs, as well as people’s behavior on social media [14]. Correa et al. defined the social media as ‘‘a mechanism for the audience to connect, communicate, and interact with each other and their mutual friends through instant messaging or social networking sites.’’ [15]. Previous study work has supported the view that online cultures mirror the offline cultures of which they are a product [16, 17].

Recent research has indicated the effect of culture on user behavior on social media. Qiu et al. [18] took China and the United States as examples of the East–West distinction. They compared Renren and Facebook and found that Renren culture was perceived as more collectivistic than Facebook culture. For example, Renren users were found more benevolent in in-group sharing. Facebook users were found more self-talk and self-interested.

Previous studies also explored the effect of culture on the motivations and usage of social media games. Culture directly affects players’ expected outcome from playing social games and indirectly affects players’ usage pattern [19]. Collectivism-oriented players play social media games to seek social outcomes. They aim at maintaining or improving a relationship. They are more likely to engage in reciprocal gifting behavior. Individualism-oriented players play games to seek personal status through competition. They prefer the behavior of advancement.

2.2 Culture and Gift Giving Behavior

The motivations and patterns of gift giving also vary from culture to culture [20]. North Americans typically have independent self-construal, focusing on the attractiveness of the gift rather than the extending meaning of the gift [21,22,23]. Their gift giving is often motivated by the desire to make the recipient happy. North Americans also have more flexibility in the gift budget. In contrast, Koreans typically view themselves through the relation to others. Their gift giving is often motivated by the desire to enhance the reputation. Koreans are more careful in the selection of gift budget. They are more sensitive to the obligation to reciprocate. They have strong motivations to keep conformity with others. When Koreans receive a gift without being able to reciprocate, they will feel indebted [23]. Koreans fell more social pressure to reciprocate. Thus, Koreans are less inclined to accept a gift than North Americans [24, 25].

3 Methodology

The purpose of this study is to investigate international users’ experience and acceptance when they receive digital lucky money from Chinese friends. To achieve this purpose, we took North Americans and Koreans to compare cultural differences. Questionnaires and interviews were used to investigate international users’ experience of WeChat lucky money.

3.1 Participants

Eight North American and eight Korean college students were recruited. They had stayed in China for less than 1 year. Eight Korean participants aged from 20 to 29 years old (M = 23.75, SD = 3.01) and eight North American participants aged from 22 to 26 years old (M = 24.38, SD = 1.77) participated in the experiment. There was no significant difference in the ages between two samples (p > .1). Each sample was gender balanced. All participants were WeChat users. They were get used to applying WeChat to contact with their Chinese friends. But none of them had tried WeChat lucky money before the experiment. Participants spent an average of 98.13 min per day on WeChat (SD = 86.27) and had an average of 106.75 friends on WeChat (SD = 95.94). Participants mainly used WeChat to communicate with others or express their feelings in China. The results from the t-tests showed that North American participants and Korean participants did not have significant difference in the adaption and satisfaction of the life in China (all p-values >.50).

3.2 Procedures

Before the experiment, participants were provided written informed consent and asked to fill in questionnaires on demographic information, usage of WeChat, adaption and satisfaction of the life in China. In the beginning of the experiment, experimenters used slides to introduce cultural traits of lucky money and usage of WeChat lucky money.

The experiment was taken on the platform of WeChat lucky money. There are two different types of WeChat lucky money: (1) an individual transfer of money, and (2) a competitive game among multiple users, where the goal is to win an allotment of lucky money. For example, when people decide to give away 100 yuan to 10 people, WeChat will automatically divide the 100 yuan into 10 sets randomly.

In the experiment, participants experienced both types of WeChat lucky money. One was from an individual. In this scenario, participants received the lucky money with a fixed amount from their Chinese language partner. The Chinese language partner sent lucky money to participants to celebrate the coming New Year. The other one was from a WeChat group, a group doing a class project together. The scenario was that students in the group were giving and receiving lucky money to celebrate “We got an A in the final presentation” and the coming New Year. The sequence of the scenarios was randomized. Figure 1 showed an example of participants’ receiving a random amount of money from the group.

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Example of WeChat lucky money interface from a group

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When participants received lucky money from an individual or a group, they were asked to fill in the questionnaire about their experience. The measurement items were adapted from previous Internet uses and gratifications research [26, 27]. The questionnaire included four dimensions: entertainment, information seeking, social support and acceptance (see Table 1). The agreement to each statement was measured by a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1-completely disagree to 7-completely agree.

Table 1. Questionnaire of user experience of receiving group lucky money
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A semi-structured interview was followed. They needed to talk with the experimenter about their experience. The questions of interview (see Table 2) were generated under three categories: feelings, money issues and usage.

Table 2. Questions of interview
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4 Results

Using the questionnaire and semi-structured interview, we explored international users’ experience of WeChat lucky money. The findings were organized in the following sections:

4.1 Questionnaire

The results of participants’ experience on the lucky money from questionnaires were shown in Fig. 2. On average, participants gave an average score between 3 to 4 on the seven-point Likert scale. The results suggested that participants had neutral to positive attitudes toward WeChat lucky money. The results from the paired t-tests showed that there did not exist significant differences between user experience of group lucky money and that of individual lucky money in the dimension of entertainment, information seeking and acceptance (all p-values >.40). But participants felt significantly more social support from receiving individual lucky money (t = −3.162, p = .006). Korean participants and North American participants did not have significant differences in these four dimensions (all p-values >.50).

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Participants’ Experience of WeChat lucky money

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4.2 Interview

Feelings.

How do North Americans and Koreans feel when they receive lucky money from a group or an individual?

For the group lucky money, most Korean participants (6 out of 8) considered it as a way to share happiness and celebrate some achievements. For example, “I am happy. I can share with my friend” (K4), “I think, it is like one sharing emotional things” (K3). Most North American participants (7 out of 8) thought that the group lucky money was funny, like a game. For example, “It’s good, it’s a funny tool” (A6), “Rich, very rich. I think that maybe I can buy food. Money can be used now” (A7), “I think it is kind of funny, interesting” (A2), “It is like a game. Try to see who can get the higher” (A3). One Korean participant and one North American participant pointed out that their feelings about the group lucky money still depended on the closeness between themselves and the senders, “I would be more comfortable getting it from my close friends” (A4). And one Korean participant thought that it was a convenient way to give others money, “It is convenient. Because giving friends or families money is a little bit rare. But using this program, it’s more convenient to give other guys money” (K6).

For the individual lucky money, most Korean participants (7 out of 8) felt happy and friendly. For example, “It is pretty good” (K6), “I feel like Chinese are very friendly, and they want to contact with other people. To me, I feel so friendly with her” (K5), “I am thankful to him” (K3), “I think it’s better than real money, it’s more convenient” (K8). The other one Korean participant felt strange, “Really strange, because friends rarely give others money, I need to send them back” (K1). Half of the North American participants (4 out of 8) felt excited and considered it as a gift. For example, “I think it is really a nice gift” (A2), “A little surprised” (A4). The other North American participants felt uncomfortable and focused on the people who gave them, the time and the aim of the lucky money, for example, “I feel so uncomfortable, because it is too much, usually friends don’t give money to each other” (A5).

In all, most participants thought that the group one was like a game, and the individual one had more extending meanings in it. Participants were more likely to accept group lucky money. Some participants focused on the closeness between themselves and the senders, the sending time and the aim of sending lucky money.

Money-Issues.

How does the amount of money that participants receive affect their feelings?

For the group lucky money, half of Korean participants (4 out of 8) thought that the behavior that people gave them lucky money was more important. Most of North American (6 out of 8) thought that group lucky money was like a lottery.

For the individual lucky money, half of Korean participants (4 out of 8) thought that the behavior was more important. Three Korean participants (3 out of 8) claimed that they would feel pressure if they received too much money. Five North American participants (5 out of 8) claimed that they did not care about the amount of money. Two North American participants believed that the more, the better. One North American participant claimed that it depended on the sender and the occasion.

From the above, people’s attitudes toward the money were different in group one and individual one. Participants were more focused on the amount of money in individual lucky money. Korean participants claimed that too much money from individual would generate pressure on them.

Usage.

When will participants send the lucky money? How much will they send?

Most participants reported that they would send the group lucky money for fun and used the individual lucky money to express their own feelings, such as expressing thanks to someone. Most participants would only give a small amount of money in a group. For example, “I am a student, so I am poor, so I would send, maybe, I don’t know, but 40 yuan for 60 people” (A8), “Probably, usually, I don’t give my friends money, I will give them up to 10 yuan for fun, but not more than that” (A7), “Probably not much money, maybe 20 yuan” (A6). For the individual one, participants would be more careful about the amount of money. The closeness would affect their selection of the budget. For example, “For my best friends, I would give them 100 RMB, for others, maybe 40 to 50 RMB” (K5), “In Korean, coffee or ticket, it depends on who she is, roughly from 50 to 300 RMB, 50 RMB for unfamiliar friends, 300 RMB for my families or very close friends” (K8).

5 Discussion

Overall, participants had neutral to positive attitudes toward WeChat lucky money. The group lucky money with a random amount of money was perceived as a game. The individual lucky money with a fixed amount of money was considered as a way to express one’s feelings to others. Participants felt significantly more social support from the individual lucky money. Participants were more likely to enjoy the process of giving and receiving the group lucky money. The randomness and entertainment of the group lucky money increase users’ acceptance of money gifting social games. Before the experiment, none of the participants had ever tried the function of lucky money on WeChat. But after the introduction of the experimenter, they expressed great interest in this function. In the design of global social media, clear guides should be provided for international users. WeChat lucky money also helped participants know more about Chinese culture. Participants also felt social support from Chinese through receiving WeChat lucky money. Thus, social media can help users adapt to new culture. Participants also considered the payment on WeChat as a convenient tool for person-to-person trade and e-commerce. Social media can add the efficient payment function to create larger ecosystem.

This study found small cultural differences on the acceptance and usage of money-gifting social games. Korean participants cared more about the extending meanings of the lucky money and felt more pressure when they received too much money from others. This result is consistent with prior studies that showed a small effect of culture on user behaviors in social media games [19]. Influenced by the interdependent self-construal, Koreans are more likely to feel more pressure about giving gifts even in online social games. Koreans will feel uncomfortable when they receive a large amount of money from others. Although the effect is small, designers should consider carefully about the cultural difference because of the large population of potential users. Some North American and Korean participants focused on the closeness with the senders. They preferred to send more money to the families or friends who have close ties with them. Compared with other online games, social media games are unique in its relationship to users’ off-line interaction. This study can help designers understand users’ motivations and usage pattern.

This study was limited in several aspects. First, the sample size was small. The sample was also skewed toward specific ages (20–30 s) and restricted to college students. Although it is sufficient to gain some insights on cultural differences for an exploratory study, the conclusions cannot be properly applied to general populations. Second, this study used WeChat lucky money as an example. More researches should be done to investigate the effect of culture on different types of social games.

6 Conclusion

This study found that most international participants felt happy and accepted the function lucky money on WeChat. The group lucky money with a random amount of money was like a game. The individual lucky money with a fixed amount of money was considered as a way to express one’s feelings to others. But none of the participants had tried the lucky money function before the experiment. In the design of global social media, a clearer introduction of function should be offered to international users.

Moreover, designers should consider more about cultural differences when social media explores opportunities to expand overseas. Compared with North Americans, Koreans were more likely to feel more pressure about receiving gifts even in online social games. The culture difference would affect users’ experience of global social media.