Understanding Digital Gifting Through Messengers Across Cultures: A Comparative Study of University Students in South Korea, China, and Japan
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866918145009123328 |
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| author | Lee, YeEun Ahn, Dakyeom Kwon, JungYu Lee, SeungJi Lim, Hajin |
| author_facet | Lee, YeEun Ahn, Dakyeom Kwon, JungYu Lee, SeungJi Lim, Hajin |
| contents | Digital gift-giving has become a key means of maintaining social relationships, but most existing research has focused on gifting within global e-commerce or social media platforms. The emergence of messenger-based gifting in East Asia, where Korea, Japan, and China each have distinct and deeply rooted gifting traditions, remains underexplored. This study examines how in-app gifting services on the most widely used messaging platforms in South Korea (KakaoTalk), Japan (LINE), and China (WeChat) reflect and reshape culturally embedded gifting practices. Through semi-structured interviews with 26 university students, we found that KakaoTalk facilitates frequent, informal exchanges aligned with Korea's emphasis on broad social ties; LINE supports selective and carefully presented gifts, reflecting Japanese norms of formality and sincerity; and WeChat's Hongbao feature enables playful, communal monetary exchanges largely detached from traditional, obligation-driven gifting. Drawing on these findings, we propose the Channel-Oriented Gifting Cycle model, which extends classical gift-exchange theory by showing that the choice of gifting platform is not merely logistical but a culturally meaningful part of the gifting process. We conclude with design implications for culturally sensitive digital gifting services. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_16932 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Understanding Digital Gifting Through Messengers Across Cultures: A Comparative Study of University Students in South Korea, China, and Japan Lee, YeEun Ahn, Dakyeom Kwon, JungYu Lee, SeungJi Lim, Hajin Human-Computer Interaction Digital gift-giving has become a key means of maintaining social relationships, but most existing research has focused on gifting within global e-commerce or social media platforms. The emergence of messenger-based gifting in East Asia, where Korea, Japan, and China each have distinct and deeply rooted gifting traditions, remains underexplored. This study examines how in-app gifting services on the most widely used messaging platforms in South Korea (KakaoTalk), Japan (LINE), and China (WeChat) reflect and reshape culturally embedded gifting practices. Through semi-structured interviews with 26 university students, we found that KakaoTalk facilitates frequent, informal exchanges aligned with Korea's emphasis on broad social ties; LINE supports selective and carefully presented gifts, reflecting Japanese norms of formality and sincerity; and WeChat's Hongbao feature enables playful, communal monetary exchanges largely detached from traditional, obligation-driven gifting. Drawing on these findings, we propose the Channel-Oriented Gifting Cycle model, which extends classical gift-exchange theory by showing that the choice of gifting platform is not merely logistical but a culturally meaningful part of the gifting process. We conclude with design implications for culturally sensitive digital gifting services. |
| title | Understanding Digital Gifting Through Messengers Across Cultures: A Comparative Study of University Students in South Korea, China, and Japan |
| topic | Human-Computer Interaction |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.16932 |