Investigating the drivers of discontinuous usage in short-video platforms: the role of information characteristics

Purpose This study aims to investigate the drivers of discontinuous usage among short-video consumers. More specifically, this study explores whether three prominent information characteristics (i.e. information narrowing, information redundancy and information overload) increase discontinuous usage intention and underlying mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) framework and expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT), structural equation modeling was used to test the research model. Findings The results suggest that information narrowing is a powerful antecedent of social media fatigue (SMF), while information narrowing and information overload are two strong antecedents of dissatisfaction. The findings also reveal that social media fatigue increases dissatisfaction. Moreover, both SMF and dissatisfaction have a positive and significant effect on discontinuous usage intention. Originality/value This study contributes to the limited literature on discontinuous usage intention by (1) exploring the perspective of information characteristics on short-video platforms and (2) identifying the underlying mechanism by which information characteristics influence consumers’ discontinuous usage intention.