Understanding users’ acceptance of money gifting in a social game

Abstract

The explosive growth of social media has created new opportunities for social games and social payments. This study investigates users’ acceptance of the money gifting social game. The experiment was conducted on WeChat lucky money, a social game bringing the tradition of giving cash-filled lucky money into digital. WeChat lucky money becomes an immediate hit and boosts the usage of WeChat payment in China. Eight North Americans and eight Koreans were recruited to experience the WeChat lucky money. The results showed that international users enjoyed giving and receiving lucky money on WeChat. Most users preferred to play the WeChat lucky money with their close families and friends. Compared with North Americans, Koreans cared more about the extending meaning of the lucky money. Koreans also felt more social pressure when receiving a large amount of money from others.