TikTok is the international twin of China’s mobile short video app, Douyin, and one of the fastest growing short video platforms in the world. Owned by Chinese tech giant, ByteDance, TikTok and ...Douyin share many similarities in terms of appearance, functionality, and platform affordances; however, they exist in radically different markets and are governed by radically different forces. Unlike other popular mobile media platforms in China and internationally, TikTok and Douyin are neither part of the big three tech giants in China nor the big five in the US. This provides an interesting case study to investigate how an emerging internet company adapts its products to better fit divergent expectations, cultures, and policy frameworks in China and abroad. Using the app walkthrough method informed by platformization of culture production theory, this study highlights the similarities and distinctions between these two platforms. We argue the co-evolution of Douyin and TikTok is a new paradigm of global platform expansion that differs from strategies of regionalization adopted by previous major social media platforms. We contribute to platformization theory by developing the concept of parallel platformization to explain ByteDance’s strategies for surviving in two opposing platform ecosystems in China and abroad.
This book provides a balanced and nuanced study of how the super-sticky WeChat platform interweaves into the fabric of Chinese social, cultural, and political life. It keeps the wider global and ...national social media landscape in view and compares and contrasts WeChat with Weibo, QQ and other Western social media platforms.
Clone detection provides insight about replicated fragments in a code base. With the rise of multi-language code bases, new techniques addressing cross-language code clone detection enable the ...analysis of polyglot systems. Such techniques have not yet been applied to the mobile apps' domain, which are naturally polyglot. Native mobile app developers must synchronize their code base in at least two different programming languages. App synchronization is a difficult and time-consuming maintenance task, as features can rapidly diverge between platforms, and feature identification must be performed manually. The end goal of this work is to provide an analysis framework to reduce the impact of app synchronization. A first step in this direction consists in a structural algorithm for cross-language clone detection, called Out of Step, exploiting the idea behind enriched concrete syntax trees. Such trees are used as a common intermediate representation built from programming languages' grammars, to detect similarities between app code bases. Our technique finds code similarities with over 80% for the evaluation of language features, where Type 1-3 clones are manually injected for the analysis of both single- and cross-language cases for Kotlin and Dart. We validate the feasibility and correctness of our approach through the evaluation of the main language constructs for Kotlin and Dart. To validate the effectiveness we use a first case study detecting clones between 12 sorting algorithms across Kotlin and Dart, identifying clone similarities with a precision between 67% and 95%. Finally, we use a corpus of 144 mobile apps implemented in Kotlin and Dart, correctly identifying code similarities for the full application logic.
•Gamification is a promising avenue for enhancing user engagement.•Interaction with game elements facilitates basic psychological need satisfaction.•To foster user engagement, mobile apps should ...satisfy basic psychological needs.•User engagement with mobile apps leads to positive marketing outcomes.
Organizations are increasingly making use of gamification to enhance users’ engagement with their mobile apps. However, more research into the mechanisms that facilitate user engagement and its consequences is needed. Drawing on the self-system model of motivational development, this study investigates how gamification might foster user engagement and positive marketing outcomes. Data from 276 users of a mobile gamified app were analyzed using partial least squares regression. The results showed that gamification increases user engagement through satisfaction of the needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness. User engagement, in turn, leads to greater intention to use, disseminate WOM about, and to positively rate, the app. Finally, this study provides a number of theoretical and practical implications that can help developers design more effective gamified mobile apps.
Mental health apps offer unique opportunities for self-management of mental health and well-being in mobile, cost-effective ways. There is an abundance of apps available to consumers, but selecting a ...useful one presents a challenge. Most available apps are not supported by empirical evidence and thus consumers have access to a range of untested apps, the benefits of which are not known or supported. While user ratings exist, and are likely to be considered by consumers when selecting an app, they do not actually yield information on app suitability. A possible alternative way for consumers to choose an app would be to use an app review platform. A number of attempts have been made to construct such a platform, and this paper introduces PsyberGuide, which offers a step towards providing objective and actionable information for publicly available mental health apps.
•Apps are a useful tool in self-management of mental health and well-being•Most publicly available mental health apps have no direct scientific support•User ratings are an indication of app popularity but not clinical usefulness•Consumers and clinicians need additional ways to determine what “good” apps are•App rating platforms (for example, PsyberGuide) may be a way to address this
Dietary interventions are effective prevention and treatment strategies for chronic diseases; however, they require extensive commitment, time, and resources. Dietary mobile applications (apps) have ...gained popularity and are thus being incorporated into dietary management.
The aim of this review is to assess the effects of the use of dietary mobile apps on nutritional outcomes in adults with chronic diseases.
A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines using MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, and CINAHL databases. The protocol was registered on PROSPERO. Intervention studies evaluating the nutritional outcomes of dietary apps, published in English between January 1, 2007 and November 15, 2017 were included. The methodological quality of included articles was assessed via the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Quality Criteria Checklist: Primary Research. Heterogeneity was confirmed using the I2 index and a random-effects meta-analysis was performed for randomized controlled trials. Estimates of the pooled mean difference were calculated for app usage compared to no app usage.
Nutritional outcomes, categorized as food-/nutrition-related, anthropometric measurements, pertinent clinical/biochemical data, and nutrition-focused physical findings, were extracted from the included intervention studies.
Upon completion of the searches, 18,649 articles were identified, and data were extracted from 22 articles. Pooled estimates showed a significantly greater decrease in weight (–2.45 kg, 95% CI –3.33 to –1.58 kg; P<0.001; I2=96.2%, 95% CI 95% to 97%), waist circumference (–2.54 cm, 95% CI –3.34 to –1.73 cm; P<0.001; I2=88.3%, 95% CI 67% to 96%), and energy intake (–149.52 kcal, 95% CI –215.78 to –83.27 kcal; P<0.001; I2=0% CI 0% to 90%) when an app was used compared to control.
The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis indicate that dietary mobile apps are effective self-monitoring tools, and that their use results in positive effects on measured nutritional outcomes in chronic diseases, especially weight loss.
Relevant and timely provision of transit information advises travelers of the route options available to them, allows riders to plan the timing of their trips, and helps mitigate the adverse impacts ...of unexpected disruptions. This in turn can improve the experience and retention of current riders and help attract new ones. While previous studies have relied primarily on data collected from surveys to understand people’s use of transit information services, this paper uses backend data from Transit, a multimodal trip planner smartphone application (app), to analyze usage patterns in Calgary over the span of six months. A clustering analysis was initially performed to gain an understanding of trip search characteristics. The results show that most searches were made for short distanced trips. Additionally, panel data models were estimated to investigate the relationship between search frequency and transit service characteristics, temporal factors, built environment, weather and sociodemographic attributes. The model results reveal that people seek out transit information the most during times of uncertainty, as poor reliability and service disruptions were shown to increase itinerary searches markedly. Furthermore, there was found to be a significant increase in searches after the network was restructured and three bus rapid transit (BRT) lines were introduced. These findings can help agencies determine the best way to deliver information to people and gain insights into travel behavior.
This paper provides an empirical perspective into the antecedents and outcomes of consumer attitudes towards retailers' mobile commerce (m-commerce) applications (apps). A longitudinal perspective ...was obtained from 474 consumers over a period of 12 months. The research examines the variables influencing consumer attitudes and behaviours during the initial adoption phase (1 month) of a retailer's m-commerce app compared to the usage phase (12 months) of the app. Previous research primarily outlines some of the determinants of mobile app adoption; moving beyond this, through a direct comparison with the same set of consumers at each phase of the research the results illustrate significant differences between the variables influencing consumer attitudes towards the m-commerce app at the initial adoption phase compared to the usage phase. Additionally, the results assert that, over time (following the usage phase), positive attitudes towards the app results in increased purchase frequency through the app, positive attitudes and loyalty towards the brand. The results further reveal the influence of smartphone screen size on consumer attitudes and behaviours.
The purpose of this research is to understand the main factors that determine users’ continuance intention to use social mobile Apps, considering two utilitarian (i.e., perceived usefulness, ...perceived ease of use) variables and a hedonic (i.e., perceived enjoyment) variable. As social mobile Apps may be utilitarian or hedonic, we aim to evaluate possible differences in the significance of the aforementioned antecedent factors in utilitarian Apps (i.e., TripAdvisor) and hedonic Apps (i.e., Instagram). The data were collected from an international sample of users; the Partial Least Squares method was applied to analyze the research model, using SMARTPLS 3.0. To analyze the moderating effects, a multi-group PLS analysis was carried out to compare the differences between the path relationships in the two Apps. The results show that continuance intention to use is explained by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, satisfaction and user experience (control variable), and the impact of utilitarian variables is generally greater for utilitarian Apps, whereas the impact of perceived enjoyment is higher for hedonic Apps. This study contributes to the general body of knowledge about mobile Apps by providing a comprehensive theoretical foundation and practical implications that illuminate the continuance use of social mobile Apps.
•A hedonic-utilitarian model explains continuance intention to use social mobile Apps.•Social mobile App type (utilitarian vs. hedonic Apps) moderates these relationships.•The impact of the utilitarian factor (i.e., perceived ease of use) is greater for utilitarian social mobile Apps.•The impact of the hedonic factor (i.e., perceived enjoyment) is higher for hedonic mobile travel Apps.
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