Cross-Cultural Communication Strategies in Digital Persuasive Discourse: A Comparative Study of Taobao and Amazon US

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-601-7_46How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Cross-cultural Pragmatics; Intercultural communication; Digital discourse

Abstract

The rapid development of global e-commerce has made digital product descriptions an important form of cross-cultural online discourse. From the perspective of cross-cultural pragmatics and based on Hall’s high-context versus low-context cultural theory, this study examines Bluetooth headset product descriptions on two representative online platforms—Taobao in China and Amazon in the United States. Through comparative discourse analysis, it investigates cross-cultural differences in emotional appeal, directive strategies, and information presentation. The findings indicate that Taobao product descriptions tend to employ higher emotional density and more direct persuasive expressions, reflecting communication patterns associated with relationship-oriented high-context culture. In contrast, Amazon descriptions favor objective parameter presentation and lower-involvement expression, reflecting low-context preferences for informational explicitness and consumer autonomy. These findings reveal systematic differences in digital persuasive discourse across cultural contexts. This study contributes to research on cross-cultural pragmatics and digital discourse by illustrating how culturally shaped communication preferences are reflected in online platform discourse. It also provides implications for intercultural communication and localization practices in global digital environments.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xinghan Li
AU  - Shu Zhang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/06
TI  - Cross-Cultural Communication Strategies in Digital Persuasive Discourse: A Comparative Study of Taobao and Amazon US
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 2nd International Conference on Education Reform, Ideology and Politics (ERIP 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 382
EP  - 388
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-601-7_46
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-601-7_46
ID  - Li2026
ER  -