Acceptance and Quality Perceptions of Social Network Services in Cultural Context: Vkontakte as a Case Study

Katsiaryna S. Baran, Wolfgang G. Stock

In terms of network economics, as well as other information services, a social network service (SNS) has two chances—either it gains acceptance (“success breeds success”) and will become standard or it slowly dies. Nowadays, Facebook is the standard in the social network world, however, not in Russia’s and the neighboring countries’ social network communities. Here, Vkontakte, the domestic SNS, dominates. What are the reasons for this success of the regional SNS and the failure of the global giant? We answer this research question while we empirically studied both SNSs, Facebook as well as Vkontakte, among Russian users. In the evaluation, based on the Information Service Evaluation (ISE) Model, we found out that Vkontakte is perceived as more useful than Facebook, is much more trustworthy, and more enjoyable to use. The cultural environment of the Russian community plays an important role as well.

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