The motivations underlying foreigners' desire to join Chinese social media platforms: A research based on the social cognitive career and motivation theory

Abstract

Chinese social media platforms, such as Xiaohongshu, have developed rapidly and attracted billions of subscribers internationally. This chapter seeks to understand the underlying motivations for and reasons why foreigners (i.e., non-Chinese) want to join Chinese social media platforms, and particularly to identify what motivates the first-time users of social media platforms who have never created a channel before to launch their own Chinese channel. From the Social Cognitive Career and Motivation Theory, two research questions guided this chapter: (1) What are foreigners’ motivations for starting a Chinese-audience-oriented social media channel, and why? and (2) How do those foreigners (i.e., the participants) describe their experiences, decisions, and decision-making processes during their venture? The general inductive approach was employed to collect qualitative data from seven participants, and it included: online semi-structured interviews and remarkable item sharing via pictures. Two main types of contributions have been identified: (1) contributions to the theory and (2) contributions to current practices. It is worth noting that the qualitative data and materials from the participants yielded new and innovative information, and the Social Cognitive Career and Motivation Theory has, in turn, been enhanced by these new materials.