Live streaming apps

This study explores the social, emotional, and economic dynamics of virtual gifting within Douyin's live-streaming ecosystem. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, the research involved semi-structured interviews with 10 streamers and 10 viewers, supplemented by participant observation and document analysis. Guided by Symbolic Interactionism, Social Identity Theory, and Uses and Gratifications Theory, the study investigates how gifting functions beyond financial exchange to fulfill deeper psychological and communal needs. Findings reveal that viewers engage in gifting to seek emotional connection, gain social recognition, and express personal identity, while streamers interpret gifts as markers of validation, loyalty, and performance pressure. Virtual gifts act as symbolic currency, reinforcing relationships and community norms through features like leaderboards and animated effects. The practice also exposes streamers to financial instability and emotional strain, particularly when dependent on a few high-value donors. The study highlights the dual nature of gifting as both empowering and burdensome, driven by platform design and user expectations. It underscores the need for sustainable engagement strategies and supportive platform policies that balance recognition with emotional well-being. Ultimately, this research provides a deeper understanding of virtual gifting as a socio-technical ritual that shapes user behavior, identity, and community in China's fast-evolving digital landscape.

Streamers play a critical role in fostering consumer stickiness in live streaming sales. Thus, it is necessary to make clear the mechanism of how streamers influence consumer stickiness. Based upon the theories of social support, social identification and consumer stickiness, this study investigates the effects of consumers’ perceived emotional support, informational support, financial support, affectionate support and social network support from streamers on consumer–streamer identification, which in turn affects consumer–streamer stickiness and consumer–brand stickiness in live streaming sales settings. Based on the structural equation modeling analysis of 280 online questionnaires, using the software of Smart PLS 3.0, the results demonstrate that perceived emotional support, perceived informational support, perceived financial support and perceived affectionate support enhance consumer–streamer identification, thereby enhancing consumer–streamer stickiness and consumer–brand stic...

Streamers play a critical role in fostering consumer stickiness in live streaming sales. Thus, it is necessary to make clear the mechanism of how streamers influence consumer stickiness. Based upon the theories of social support, social identification and consumer stickiness, this study investigates the effects of consumers’ perceived emotional support, informational support, financial support, affectionate support and social network support from streamers on consumer–streamer identification, which in turn affects consumer–streamer stickiness and consumer–brand stickiness in live streaming sales settings. Based on the structural equation modeling analysis of 280 online questionnaires, using the software of Smart PLS 3.0, the results demonstrate that perceived emotional support, perceived informational support, perceived financial support and perceived affectionate support enhance consumer–streamer identification, thereby enhancing consumer–streamer stickiness and consumer–brand stic...

In Indonesia, the popularity of the live-streaming platform, which has evolved into commercial media, is widely discussed. It is because of factors supporting its superiority, such as Price Promotion, Promotion Time Limit, and Interperso nal Interaction, which subsequently affected Online Purchase Intention. The rapid advancement of technology has resulted in a new shopping experience in which consumers and marketers interact in real-time through a medium such as a TikTok live-streaming platform. This study aimed to explore the factors supporting the Purchase Intention of Indonesian consumers influenced by the TikTok live-streaming platform, both directly and indirectly. Research data were collected from 254 respondents in Indonesia who were selected using a purposive sampling technique. Afterward, the data were analyzed using SEM AMOS 26. The primary findings of this study indicated that Price Promotion, Promotion Time Limit, and Interpersonal Interaction, including consumer-streamer and consumer-consumer interactions, influenced Online Purchase Intention on the TikTok real-time live-streaming platform. Interpersonal interaction was also found to have a significant and negative effect on Perceived Risk. Furthermore, Perceived Risk was also proven to mediate the effect of Interpersonal Interaction on Online Purchase Intention.

Live streaming commerce has experienced tremendous growth over the past few years. Although research has increasingly investigated the phenomenon of live streaming as e-commerce, it is arguably essential to determine why consumers make purchases through live streaming and send paid gifts to streamers. This study aims to understand users' social commerce purchase intentions and gift-giving according to the uses and gratification perspective, and engagement, and extends the literature by identifying five uses and gratifications for social media live streaming and how the viewers' engagement affects purchase intentions and gift-giving. We tested the hypothesis among 525 Indonesians who watch live streaming through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The results of SEM confirm the importance of pass-times and habits to consumer engagement in live streaming. In this sequence, the role of engagement (emotional, social presence...

The author of this article used Periscope to broadcast live language, translation and technology lectures to her Twitter followers. The Periscope lecture analytics showed that lectures with the highest viewers, impressions and engagement were those about how to develop translation and interpreting skills and how to integrate Elluminate in teaching. Questionnaire-surveys indicated that followers found the Periscope lectures and their replays beneficial, interesting, enriching, invaluable and fulfilling to their needs. As a lecturer, the author found Periscope easy to use. She could go live anytime and anywhere. She did not have to register students. Replays can be accessed via Periscope or Twitter. However, reading comments and questions while live streaming was somewhat challenging. When lecturing via Periscope, the author could not hear viewers' voices or see their facial expressions as in Zoom. Engagement, interaction, and communication among the viewers and the viewers and the instructor were very low. Recommendations for making Periscope lectures more interactive are given.

Mobile technology has brought about a swift change in how business is conducted and how individuals communicate and interact with each other. The increasing number of mobile applications available in app stores could be a challenge for developers as they will be required to stay innovative in order to acquire and maintain a competitive edge. For the mobile application businesses to succeed, owners of these applications need to know and understand their customers and their requirements to be able to meet their demands. Due to the currency of this trend, there seems to be scarcity in terms of academic literature and information intelligence for businesses on the subject. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate the influence of systems quality, user trust and user satisfaction on purchase intention of mobile applications users in South African. A quantitative survey designed on Qualtrics was conducted and a sample size of 353 internet users in the Gauteng Provinces was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results were statistically analysed using IBM SPSS to draw descriptive statistics. Constructs reliability and validity were assessed by conducting Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) using AMOS version 22. Model fit was also assessed and path modelling performed. The results of the study indicated some level of significance on all the relationships. However, the results showed a very weak significance level between user satisfaction and purchase intention. The study recommends that business should invest and channel their resources towards building trust and reliance on their customers. The limitations of the study were highlighted and future research directions suggested.

eCommerce live streaming has enabled new forms of customer engagement, where live streamers, viewers and platform owners engage each other in real time to hawk and trade goods and services. Central to live streaming sales are live streamers. It is therefore critical to discover techniques to maximize live streamers' engagement with viewers. Based on the intimacy theory, we propose the perceived intimacy live streamers created improves online engagement with viewers. Our survey results suggest streamers' authenticity, attitudinal similarity and customer response capability enhance intimacy perceived by online viewers, leading to viewers' online engagement. Contributions of our study are discussed.

Some types of live streaming platforms allow viewers to purchase virtual gifts and donate them to streamers. In the Greater China area, the purchase and donation of virtual gifts have created a unique ecological system where streamers benefit from splitting earnings with the platforms. This study aims to explore viewers’ motivation to participate in such systems. The concept of parasocial relationships is employed to examine the relationships between these viewers and streamers, whereas social presence theory is used to examine the relationships among viewers. The results of an online survey confirm that social presence moderates the relationships between parasocial relationships and other constructs. Meanwhile, constructs such as enjoyment, loyalty, and trust positively influence the virtual gift donation intention. The findings have both theoretical and practical implications.