Understanding Continuance Intention to View Instagram Stories: A Perspective of Uses and Gratifications Theory

As the time that social networking sites (SNS) users spending in viewing short videos continues to grow, more and more advertisers begin using video-type of Stories advertisement (SVAD) on SNS to promote their brand or products. However, the effects of SVAD is still not very clear. Research on the SNS users' continuance intention to view Stories-type of short video is also relatively rare. Based on the uses and gratifications theory and theory of reasoned action, the purpose of this study is to explore the gratifications that may drive Instagram users' continuance intention to view video-type of Stories. This study firstly addressed the possible gratifications of viewing Instagram Stories by examining the motivations of SNS use that have been suggested by prior research and considering the features of Instagram Stories. Moreover, how those gratifications may further influence users' continuance intention to view video-type of Stories was explored. The results showed that entertainment, kill time, bridge social capital, and information value were the gratifications that Instagram users could obtain from viewing Stories. The gratifications as mentioned earlier further lead to the positive attitude of viewing Stories, thereby triggering the continuance intention to view video-type of Stories. Finally, this study proposed several suggestions for advertisers to use SVAD to conduct marketing activities.