Which content types increase participation in fashion social platforms?

Abstract

Fashion social platforms are Web 2.0 platforms that allow users to share experience and knowledge related to fashion through active participation and allow the fashion industry to rapidly utilize this information. As an important factor in the competitiveness of the industry ecosystem, the role of such platforms has attracted attention; however, few studies have investigated the strategy behind this social platform. The purposes of this study are first, to define fashion social platforms and identify the framework of their content types by interviewing fashion companies and second, to verify the motivations for participation in the various platform content types by surveying consumers. In this study, we developed five content types (forum, lookbook, crowdsourcing, matching needs, and social sharing) and assessed consumers' motivations for participation (entertainment, economic, social, and information-seeking). Fashion social platforms can be utilized to provide broad insight into consumer behavior in the fashion industry and to allow young talent to create effective business networks and communicate with consumers easily and quickly.