Effect of Textual Features on the Success of Medical Crowdfunding: Model Development and Econometric Analysis from the Tencent Charity Platform

Background Medical crowdfunding utilizes the internet to raise medical funds. Medical crowdfunding has developed rapidly worldwide; however, most medical crowdfunding projects fail to raise the targeted funds. Therefore, a very important research problem that has not received sufficient attention from the existing literature is identifying which factors affect the success of medical crowdfunding projects. Objective The aim of this study was to examine the effect of textual features of medical crowdfunding projects on their success rate using 4903 real projects from the Tencent Charity platform, a well-known medical crowdfunding platform in China. In particular, according to Aristotle’s theory of persuasion, we divided the project text of medical crowdfunding into the project title and project details, which were analyzed from two perspectives (existence and extent) to explore their respective impacts. Methods We established a research framework to meet our research goals. The process was divided into five main parts. We first collected data from Tencent Charity using Python programs and cleaned the datasets. Second, we selected variables and built the research model based on previous studies and the theory of persuasion. Next, the selected variables were extracted from the project text. We then performed econometric analysis using multiple regression analysis. Finally, we evaluated the results of econometric analysis to extract knowledge. Results In the project title, the presence of the patient’s disease ( P =.04) and occupation ( P =.01) had a positive impact on the success rate of fundraising, whereas the presence of age ( P <.001), gender ( P =.001), and negative emotions ( P =.04) had a negative impact. In the project details, the presence of the patient’s occupation ( P =.01), monetary evidence ( P =.02), and negative emotions ( P =.04) played a positive role in the fundraising success rate, whereas the presence of age ( P <.001) and positive emotions ( P <.001) played a negative role. Moreover, in the project details, high-frequency monetary evidence ( P =.02) and negative words ( P =.02), as well as a short narrative length ( P =.01) were conducive to succeeding in medical crowdfunding. Younger patients were more likely to obtain a higher success rate in medical crowdfunding. For patients whose occupations were national civil servant, professional skill worker, clerk, business and service worker, solider, child, student, and public-spirited person, the success rate of fundraising decreased sequentially. Conclusions This study collected 4903 valid data from Tencent Charity, and identified which factors in the project text play an important role in the success rate of medical crowdfunding from the perspective of existence and extent. We found that in addition to the project details, the features of the project title also have an important impact on the success rate of fundraising. These findings provide important theoretical and managerial implications for medical crowdfunding.