An Extended Technology Acceptance Model for Mobile Social Gaming Service Popularity Analysis

Abstract

The games industry has been growing prosperously with the development of information technology. Recently, with further advances in social networks and mobile services, playing mobile social gaming has gradually changed our daily life in terms of social connection and leisure time spending. What are the determinant factors which affect users intention to play such games? Therefore in this research we present an empirical study on WeChat, China’s most popular mobile social network, and apply a technology acceptance model (TAM) to study the reasons beneath the popularity of games in mobile social networks. Furthermore, factors from social and mobile perspective are incorporated into the conventional TAM and their influence and relationships are studied. Experimental study on accumulated online survey data reveals several interesting findings and it is believed that this research offers the researchers in the community further insight in analysing the current popularity and future potential of mobile social games.