Governmental Digital Tools: Citizen Usage and Effects on Satisfaction of Government

Based on a questionnaire survey in Beijing, this study firstly displays the status of citizen usage of government digital tools, including Weibo, WeChat and APP. Chinese citizens prefer to use governmental Wechat primarily, followed by governmental App and Weibo. Secondly, the paper examines socio-demographic variables, general usage of new media, political interests and political knowledge as dependent variables while using three digital tools as independent variables. The final OLS model shows that general new media use and using other tools are strong predictors. Thirdly, the study finds that using governmental Wechat positively would enhance the citizens' satisfaction with government. Using governmental micro blogs only positively affected their perceptions of information openness, and using governmental APP could positively influence on both information openness and responsiveness satisfactions.