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The purpose of this research paper is to identify whether there is an influence of finding information and evaluating for alternatives through social media towards the purchase decision of Japanese and Indonesian people. Social media has become an advantageous tool that people use for marketing purposes and maintaining interpersonal relationships whereas, also letting users to contribute their voices to the public/ connections they have. Researchers acquired information from Japanese and Indonesian respondents through designing a questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The questionnaire resulted in 200 respondents, 100 Japanese respondents and 100 Indonesian respondents and semi-structured interview with 8 respondents, 4 Japanese respondents and 4 Indonesian respondents. The results showed that information search through social media influences the purchase decision of Japanese and Indonesian consumers however has an insignificant effect. The study also proved that evaluation of alternatives through social media influences the purchase decision of Japanese and Indonesian consumers and has a significant effect. The majority of information found in social media are in the form of posts, pictures, descriptive, evaluative comments, reviews and testimonies from other consumers / people they know. These processes led a higher impact on the Indonesian respondents' purchase decision compared to the Japanese respondents.

Communication, Evaluation for alternatives, Information Search, Japanese and Indonesian consumers, Purchase Decision, Social Media.