earticle

영어

In recent year, mobile technologies have opened possibilities for sharing personal information and communicating with other people by online networks anytime, anywhere, anyplace. In order to realize the market potential related to mobile technologies, a large number of internet services such as instant messaging(IM) and social networking service(SNS) have been incorporated into mobile platforms. Especially, MIM(Mobile Instant Messenger) market has been growing rapidly. Despite of rapid growth in MIM market, there are little empirical studies on MIM and users' behaviors. The purpose of this study is to examine if there is relationship between users' personal psychological factors(loneliness and self-esteem), motives for using MIM, and self- disclosure in KakaoTalk which is the most popular MIM in Korea. We builded hypotheses based on use and gratification theory(U&G theory) and prior researches on SNS and IM. To test hypotheses, the study collected date from three hundred and fifty one(351) undergraduate students who use KakaoTalk. We used structural equation modeling analysis, and the results of analysis revealed that (1) self-esteem and loneliness affected social and hedonic motives for using MIM significantly, (2) social motives for using MIM significantly influenced self-disclosure intention in MIM, (3) self-esteem and loneliness affected self-disclosure intention in MIM directly. However, hedonic motives and utilitarian motives for using MIM did not impact self-disclosure. Lastly, user's self-esteem and loneliness were not related to utilitarian motives for using MIM significantly. Limitations are discussed and we suggested theoretical as well as practical implication of this research.