Prior negative experience of online disclosure, privacy concerns, and regulatory support in Chinese social media

A written survey of 489 Chinese college students was conducted in the spring of 2012 to test a conceptual model of consumers' regulatory support for social media advertising. It showed that the prior negative experience of consumers in online disclosure directly increased their privacy concerns and perceived risks in disclosing on social networking websites. Online privacy concerns, trust, and risk strengthened their support for the government regulation of social media advertising, while trust and social media use enhanced support for industry self-regulation. Surprisingly, the prior negative experiences of young Chinese consumers did not reduce their social media use and had little direct effect on their support for regulations. The implications of the findings for digital interactive marketers and governmental and self-regulatory agencies are discussed.