Dean Eckles
London E1W 1YW, UK
Portland, ME 04101
2nd floor
11th floor
Boston, MA 02115
2nd floor
London E1W 1LP, UK
Talk recording
Communication technologies exhibit network effects since the payoffs for adoption depend on who can be communicated with. Contemporary Internet services such as Facebook and Twitter involve both broadcast communication (i.e. undirected sharing with an individual's network) and non-broadcast communication, such as directed feedback (e.g., comments) on that content. We present randomized experiments that cause individuals to receive more feedback on their broadcasts from all or some of their peers. We find substantial effects of receiving feedback on both giving others feedback and on subsequent broadcasts. This provides evidence about the role of directed behaviors in the adoption and continued use of broadcast functionality. This reduced-form evidence informs expectations about how increases to network degree (and thus audience size) change the value of a platform in the presence of limited attention and effort.
Joint work with René Kizilcec (Stanford, on the job market) and Eytan Bakshy (Facebook)