Why Are People Loyal to Live Stream Channels? The Perspectives of Uses and Gratifications and Media Richness Theories

Live stream services have emerged as a highly profitable Internet application in recent years with rapidly growing audiences for this form of instant and interactive Internet media. This study applies media richness theory along with uses and gratifications theory to predict user loyalty to live stream services. The proposed model is empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 295 users responding about their perception of such services. Empirical results show that perceived media richness and gratifications such as entertainment and sociability are antecedents of loyalty, while immediate feedback is the most salient facet of perceived media richness. The results provide further useful insights for service providers and streamers to build loyal user bases.