The Effects of Chinese Social Media on Consumer Decision-Making in the Pet Industry

Abstract

 The essence of social media lies in its promotion of participation, openness, communication, and community-based interactions, empowering individuals to both create and distribute content. The era when social media is pervasive in all aspects of people's lives cannot be ignored. Approximately 1.02 billion people in China were using the internet as of January 2022, compared to around 307 million users in the United States. As of January 2023, global social media usage reached 59%. This number is expected to grow as less developed digital infrastructure builds and the availability of inexpensive mobile devices increases. Pet consumer habits are no exception to the impact. Chinese social media was chosen for research due to East Asia's status as a mobile-first market. It holds the top position in global mobile social network penetration. This proposal aims to study the behavior of pet consumers in the Chinese social media environment and explore in depth how social media affects their pet consumption decisions. The study will survey Chinese people living in Australia through the questionnaire. In the questionnaire, the Chinese social media usage habits and consumption habits of pet users were quantitatively collected. By discussing the behavior habits of pet consumers on social media platforms and analyzing the consumption status and trends of the pet consumption market, this paper provides valuable data and strategic suggestions for enterprises, policy makers and academia in the pet consumption market in the context of China's social media platforms.