To Click or Not To Click? Kyrgyz Consumers' Attitudes towards and Responses to Social Media Ads

Social media attracts a wide range of users and in this way creates great opportunities for businesses and in this way attract the academic researchers from all over the world. According to recently published research, the majority of the articles on this subject concentrated in the last 5 years and main of them addressed to developed countries. Limited numbers of studies have published from emerging markets especially from the former Soviet Union countries. This study aims to examine social media usage in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Data was collected by using structured questionnaire, which based to collect data on demographic characteristics, statements related to people's behavior with respect to social media usage, statements about social media advertising, statements about one's normal everyday activities, statements concerning advertising. The survey was conducted in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan between 250 respondents on March-April 2015 period. Results indicate that Kyrgyz consumers actively use social media for several purposes and their attitudes towards and responses to social media ads are generally influenced by their perceptions and trust. Facebooks is found to be the most popular social media used in Kyrgyzstan.