Understanding Determinants Of User Acceptance Of Whatsapp – An Empirical Study | Pooja Chopra & Monica Bedi

Technological advancements have significantly changed the way we distribute, create and share information these days. Popularity of smartphones and advancement in technology has made Whatsapp one of the most admired chatting and instant messaging (IM) communication application in India. It has become a popular, real-time tool that enables people for interactive communication by sending and receiving chat messages while managing several conversations at the same time. This has created a vast dependency on Whatsapp, enabling us to communicate, share pictures and videos from nearly anywhere, as long as access to internet is available. Mobile instant messaging is showing an upward trajectory growth. The study highlights the respondents’ dependence on Whatsapp and the effect of dependency on their usage,with the help of statistical tools like correlation and regression analysis. Eight constructs, namely, Functional Value (FV), Social Value (SV), Emotional Value (EV), Perceived Ease Of Use (PE), Self Expression (SE), Trust (T), Monetary Value (MV), Perceived Service Quality (PSQ) were examined to assess the respondents’ dependence on Whatsapp. The questionnaire based survey method was used to gather data from 189 mobile instant message users from North India. The findings of the study showed, that the perceived service quality(PSQ) is the decisive factor affecting respondents’ dependence on Whatsapp.