Two Formulas for Success in Social Media: Social Learning and Network Effects

• Main Authors: QIU, Liangfei, TANG, Qian, Whinston, Andrew B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: Social Learning; Network Effects; User-Generated Content; Social Contagion; Social Media; Communication Technology and New Media; Databases and Information Systems
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/2195; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/3195/viewcontent/wise20130_submission_13.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper examines social learning and network effects that are particularly important for online videos, considering the limited marketing campaigns of user-generated content. Rather than combining both social learning and network effects under the umbrella of social contagion or peer influence, we develop a theoretical model and empirically identify social learning and network effects separately. Using a unique data set from YouTube, we find that both mechanisms have statistically and economically significant effects on video views, and which mechanism dominates depends on the specific video type.