Abstract:  [Purpose/Significance] This paper carried out a research on influencing factors that affect the willingness of young users to use online emoticons from the perspective of user experience, which provides references and suggestions on optimizing the user experience of using online emoticons and promoting the healthy development of online emoticons. [Design/Methodology] Combined S-O-R model with semi-structured interviews results, a theoretical model that describes the factors influencing young users' willingness to use online emoticons has been constructed, 387 valid questionnaires have been collected by questionnaire method, and data analysis and hypothesis testing are carried out by using SmartPLS 3.0 software. [Findings / Conclusion]There are differences in the effects of different dimensions of emoticons characteristics （visual attraction, content presentation, and information interpretation） and usage contexts （interaction platform, interaction object, and interaction scene） on flow experience and social presence; flow experience and social presence have significant and positive influence on users' willingness to use online emoticons, and play an important mediating role in the process where emoticon characteristics and usage contexts influence users' willingness to use online emoticons. [Originality/Value]This paper uses a combination of semi-structured interviews and structural equation model to investigate the factors influencing young users' willingness to use online emoticons, which not only enriches the literature related to users' online emoticon use behavior, but also provides new ideas to explore the issue of users' willingness to use.

Keywords: Online emoticons, Use intention, S-O-R model, Flow experience, Social presence, Young users