What motivates Chinese sports fans to subscribe to athletes’ social media accounts?

This study attempted to identify the motivational factors for using athletes’ SNS among Chinese sports fans. The researchers posted a hyperlink of an online survey on a total of 8 Chinese Olympians’ SNS(Weibo) accounts after obtaining the athlete’s approval. A total of 274 surveys were gathered from the visitors of SNS. Of the 274 surveys, 33 were discarded because of missing values. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling revealed the following. Diversion, pass-time, athlete support, and technical knowledge were significantly and positively
related to social media consumption while information, socialization, and fanship had no significant predictive effect on social media consumption.