A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): OCSC/HCII 2013, LNCS 8029, pp. 94–103, 2013. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Understanding Social Network Sites (SNSs) Preferences: Personality, Motivation, and Happiness Matters Yuanyuan Shi, Xitong Yue, and Jin He Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences 4A, Datun Road, Beijing, China {Shiyy,Yuext,Hej}@Psych.ac.cn Abstract. Chinese Social Network Sites (SNSs), such as Qzone, Renren, Weibo, have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated SNSs surfing into daily practices. In this research, we aimed to understand people’s preferences for particular SNSs and some specific features of SNS, and explore the impacts of personality and motivations on SNSs usage. In Study 1, we com- pared the personalities, motivations and SNSs behaviors of Chinese major SNSs users. Study 2 focused on the relationship between motivation and happiness on SNSs. Finally, we drew a script on the way and reason for choosing a particular SNS and favoring specific features of each SNS. Keywords: Social Network Site (SNS), Personality, Motivation, Subjective Well-being (SWB). 1 Introduction Internet has introduced major changes in our social lives [1], and it is a leading social arena where people can meet and interact with others. Social network sites (SNSs) are defined as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi- public profile, sharing text, images, and photos, and to share connections with a certain list of other users on the Internet [2]. Since the first introduction, SNSs, such as MySpace, Facebook, Cyworld (in Korea), Bebo (in Britain) and Renren (in China) have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated SNSs surfing into daily practices. 1.1 SNSs Users’ Motivations In general, individuals flock to social network sites for maintaining relationships [2] but users’ motivations might vary from site to site, and usually individual show obvious preference to particular SNS. Specifically, for Westerners, sites like MySpace and Facebook attract users with social motivations, while sites like LinkedIn are used by individuals looking forward to establishing professional or business contacts [3]. However, there are few researches on SNSs preferences and how they come into being.