Why do users keep coming back to TikTok? Understanding users motivation toward the continuous use intention of Chinese adolescent social media users"

Abstract

In recent years, the TikTok platform has made a significant impact in the social media market worldwide, now holding a large market share in the short video service market popular with young people. Despite all this success, there is little research on how Internet users become loyal to TikTok. Hence, this study proposes a framework based on the use and gratification theory to evaluate the antecedents of adolescents continuous use motivations and behavior, and how they influence teenagers continuous use of TikTok. The survey population for this study was reached both online and offline. A total of 362 adolescent Chinese users of the TikTok platform were surveyed. The results show that self-expression, entertainment, information seeking, communication, and passing time were derived as adolescents motivations to use TikTok. Among these motivations, entertainment, communication, and passing time positively affect user satisfaction with TikTok. Furthermore, user satisfaction and loyalty positively affect the intention to continue using TikTok. Finally, this study advances understanding of adolescents use motivation of TikTok and provides new reference material for the continuous innovation of the short video format.