Digital empowerment and friction in platformised sport-leisure consumption: a qualitative research note from Chengdu, China

Digital platforms increasingly organise how adults discover, evaluate and undertake sport in leisure time, yet engagement does not necessarily produce control or inclusion. This qualitative Research Note examines how platform touchpoints create empowerment and friction across sport-leisure journeys and how these experiences vary within a Chengdu sample. Twenty-four adults described recent platform-mediated episodes in semi-structured interviews. Hybrid deductive–inductive thematic analysis used perceived value, technology acceptance, innovation resistance and digital-divide perspectives as complementary sensitising lenses. Platforms widened discovery, learning, flexible access, social connection and embodied participation, but also produced operational/technological friction through overload, inaccessible interfaces, unreliable booking and data lock-in, and institutional/relational friction through misleading reviews, opaque charges, counterfeit goods, unqualified providers and weak redress. Activity stakes, sport experience, narrated digital practices, cost, time and care responsibilities shaped whether participants verified, switched channels, sought assistance or withdrew. The findings distinguish engagement from empowerment and show that platformised leisure can expand repertoires while transferring verification work and exclusion risks to consumers. They offer context-bound mechanisms rather than population-level claims.