What people TikTok (Douyin) about influencer-endorsed short videos on wine? An exploration of gender and generational differences

Purpose This study aims to understand social media users’ responses to the influencer-endorsed wine short videos on the most popular platform – Douyin, relying on message interpretation process (MIP) framework and identify segmentation differences from gender and the generational cohorts (Gen Z and Gen Y). Design/methodology/approach Topic modeling, content analysis and quantitative analysis were used to decipher the user-generated content (UGC) data retrieved from 81 wine videos posted by the top 30 social media influencers (SMI) who focused on wine products and consumption experience messages. Findings The results demonstrate social media users are most inclined to respond to product-related topics, followed by the influencer, emotional, alcohol drinking intent, behavioral and skepticism. Meanwhile, the findings also revealed that the female group was more likely to engage in influencer topics, whereas the male group contributed more to product subjects. Gen Z cohort involved more themes about alcohol drinking intent, whereas Gen Y contributed more to skepticism. Practical implications The findings provide hospitality and wine practitioners, SMI and brand sponsors valuable information to use this advanced tactic among various social networking services. Originality/value This study is the first to grasp the Douyin users’ perceptions of this newly emerged influencer marketing strategy via UGC data. Originality is established by investigating gender and generational cohorts’ differences underlined by MIP.