An Investigation on the User's Willingness to Pay on Hedonic Social Network Sites

In the current study, we investigated the effects of several factors on the user's willingness to pay (WTP) on hedonic social network sites (HSNSs), which includes WTP for HSNSs and WTP online contacts on HSNSs. Integrating the hedonic system use perspective with the social capital based view, we find that a user's WTP for HSNSs is significantly positively influenced by the user's perceived value of online social connections and perceived ease of use of the system. A user's WTP online contacts on HSNSs is significantly positively influenced by the user's perceived value of online social connections and perceived playfulness. The findings provide a theoretical foundation for the future economic value research of HSNSs, and provide several implications to practitioners.