Understanding Mass Interactions in Online Sports Viewing: Chatting Motives and Usage Patterns

Abstract

This article aims to deepen understanding of these mass interactions in online sports viewing through studying Naver Sports, the largest online sports viewing service in Korea. We examined the diverse aspects of mass interactions, including interactive experiences, usage motives, and relationships between usage patterns and motives, through analysis of almost 6 million chats from Naver Sports and from self-reporting survey data from 1,123 users. First, we found that online sports viewing provides unique interactive experiences when compared to other settings such as offline sports viewing and social TV viewing with friends. Second, we found the key motives inspiring online sports viewing include the following: sharing feelings/thoughts, wanting to be entertained, sharing information, and wanting to feel membership in a group. Third, these motives were significantly related to specific usage patterns. Finally, we explored how the study’s key findings can offer practical design implications to enhance online sports viewing services, and to show system designers how to support particular usage patterns to better accommodate specific user motives.