Abstract: [Purpose/Significance] This paper explores users' mobile search behavior when using social media apps from three aspects of search context, search strategy and behavior path. It is helpful to deeply understand users' information behavior characteristics on social media apps. [Design/Methodology] In this paper, 40 users were recruited as experimental subjects for a fee, and their behavioral data and contextual information during using social media apps for mobile search within 20 days were obtained through the method of structured logs and analyzed to reveal the behavioral characteristics of users using social media APP for mobile search. [Findings/Conclusion] The users' mobile search time of using social media is generally short, and the search locations are relatively centralized.In the context of social media usage, users' mobile search tasks are mainly about informational, and the distribution of mobile search motivations is relatively average.There are different associations between different search tasks, search motivations and search topics. After initial search, social media users will continue to search, share search results or engage in other behaviors, accompanied by the switching of app interaction path. [Originality/Value] The innovation of this paper mainly focuses on users' search behavior on social media APPs, which is a supplement to the study of social search behavior in the mobile Internet environment.

Keywords: Mobile search, Social media, Information behavior, Search strategy, User behavior