How the internet caused a communication revolution

The growth of technology has led to improvement in the communication and media sector. One of the greatest inventions in this field is the internet. The internet has revolutionized the communication especially when it comes to online communication. One of such changes is the use of social media and other communication app roles in the communication sector. Recently, the use of Internet instant messaging platforms has grown exponentially among the young people in the world. Its rapid growth has boosted communication and media activities. Instant messaging, which is a type of computer-mediated communication has surged in popularity especially with its feature of instant replies and a plethora of functionalities. Instant messaging has surged ahead of the use of email in communication. Statistics show that for email, it took it six years to reach 53 million users globally. However, instant messaging took only 2 years to reach the same population size. Instant messaging has grown to surpass and replace most of the traditional communication channels such as e-mail, calling, and fax. The growth of instant messaging reached 1. 44 billion users by 2007 and it has grown to currently being used for business communication.

According to Warkentin, (2011) three out of every five internet users in the Asia Pacific countries are using instant messaging daily APAC(61%), whilst 82% use it on a weekly basis. This is according to a research conducted on over 60, 000 internet users globally by consultancy giants Kantar TNS In usage of instant messaging daily has gained great popularity in the APAC, Malaysia leads the Asians nations with 77%, Hong Kong has 73% and thirdly china with a 62% daily usage (HUNGY, CHUA, & KONG, 2008). On the other hand, a number of western markets are trailing behind, including the US 35% and UK 39 %. In spite the above. Despite this, social platforms continue to gain popularity globally with a 6% daily growth ever since 2014. The social platform is still rising in popularity with a 6% uplifting. Social platform are still rising in popularity with a 6% uplift in daily usage globally since 2014. Facebook continues to retain its position as the world’s most preferred platform with nearly a third of the entire internet users (30%) admitting daily usage. Nevertheless, the APAC markets still experience much greater usage; with 75% of people in Taiwan, 78% in Thailand and 72% in Hong Kong are using Facebook on a daily basis. The other platforms QQ Space and We Chat are the most used social networks in the republic of china, with 37% and 69% respectively using the platforms every day. This research indicates that consumers remain still more connected to one another, and particularly within numerous platforms (Grad & Heather, 2004). Whereas, instant messaging continues to gain popularity, the conventional social media platforms still remain strong, thus giving room for content to spread much faster. Danziger,(2008)states that, the main challenge is for the various brands is in developing content which consumers are willing and can actually share them.

While the client’s base, for the emerging platforms continues to receive a slightly smaller audience in general, the audiences of these platforms are by far much more active. According to a survey by out of the 40% and 44% daily users of Vine and Snapchat respectively watch branded content in the platforms per week, on the other hand approximately 43% of Webchats daily users admit to using the platform to seek information and services regarding an organization (DANZIGER, 2007). The execution of a new communication media is not only a technical process; it also brings great impact in the communication structure in both individual and organizational communication satisfaction (Te’eni, 2001). Therefore, the way organizational executive’s select and implement the platform in aid of organizational communication to achieve communication satisfaction is very important. Studies in preference and communication media usage indicate that the communication media chosen might impact on the communication satisfaction and communication results. Since its introduction instant messaging has created the chances of instant time text focused communication among two or more users over the internet (Vries & Diana, 2005). Currently, IM contains a number of additional features: which include, the users can communicate between each other through combinations of video and voice and text messages. Generally, the present instant messaging has five distinct characteristics, recipient notification “ popup”, silent interaction format, presence awareness and transient transcripts (Vries & Diana, 2005). These unique features enable IM to be a much better substitute for real face to face interaction, and its currently the only better option for near real interaction available in the market; For actual face-to-face communication, unlike any other technology currently in the market.

Motivation and purpose

The wide spread use of the internet in communication has gained the attraction of numerous researchers. Whereas, a majority of this research is focused on the usage of these technologies in companies, research on their usage in the voluntary social contexts has been less, such as a study on the usage of IM in non-organizational environment (Li, Gupta, Luo, & Warkentin, 2011).

According CHUA, ( 2008) IM services are majorly easy and free to use, contributing to its high usage. Considering a large number of individuals use IM, the main concern becomes how to motivate the users to proceed with use. According to Te’eni, (2001) satisfaction is the key factor that be attributed to clients continuous use of a given technological product.

This study will focus on user satisfaction as the main dependent variable that is important for the users continued Instant messaging use. The study will attempt to gauge the users satisfaction in a social context, the primary focus will be on the social use of IM in creating and maintaining social engagements between family members, friends, and others.

In particular, the study explains how the attributes of media capability (for example, social availability and presence), usage behaviors’ of users within their different settings and the users observations of the influence of instant messaging on communication satisfaction. Usage behavior is the user’s satisfaction from the use of instant messaging

The research questions which will guide the study are:

1. What are the factors influencing a customer use of instant message?
2. How is the communication satisfaction of the customer who uses IM?
3. What is the relationship between IM communication behavior and customer communication satisfactions?