Skip to main content



Network Effects are Not Everything

In class, we discussed network effects and how the value of a product to one user depends how many other users of the product there are. The increase in value comes either for information-based reasons (i.e. the user feels more confident about the quality of the product if there are many others using it) or […]

Console Wars: Why Do Companies Care So Much?

The concept of companies competing for customers isn’t anything uncommon, but you’d be hard pressed to find a more direct competition with such vocal customers as the videogame console wars. As far back as the coming of the Sega Genesis in 1989, gaming companies have done all they could to get customers to choose their […]

NETWORK EFFECT IN APPLE

Apple is the most valuable company in the world, network effects play a major role in the recent growth of Apple. Increasing in usage of Apple’s products lead to direct increase in the value of Apple’s products. Direct network effects have been created in Apple’s IOS environment by services such as iMessage, Facetime, and Game […]

The Lifecycles of Apps in a Social Ecosystem

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.06870v1.pdf Two main concepts introduced in this paper are sociality and popularity. Popularity of an application is just defined the raw number of users of the application. The sociality of an application is how likely a user will adopt the app given friends who already use the app. The paper poses several interesting questions which […]

Does Candy Crush Have Network Effects?

I’m pretty Candy Crush Saga is a game you either love or hate. You either love it and all of its sickly-sweet, addictive action, or you hate it since of all those annoying Facebook notifications you get from friends pestering you to play the game. Regardless of whether you think this conclusion is valid or […]

How ISIS uses Network Effects

ISIS, a jihadist group based in the Middle East has become infamous for attracting foreigners to its ranks. There have been plenty of stories in the news on people who have left their homes in the US, Canada, and Europe to fight in Syria or Iraq on ISIS’s behalf. Much of their recruiting is reportedly done […]

Network Effects in Bullying

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-winner-effect/201207/why-do-decent-people-bully – Robertson http://sciencenetlinks.com/science-news/science-updates/popularity-bullying/ – Hirshon The spread of the bullying has strong network effects stemming from both direct and informational benefits. The articles I found describe some causes of bullying, from following the crowd to maintaining popularity. In both situations, network effects are present without being explicitly named.  The article “Why Do Decent People […]

The Use of Microfinance and Power of Networks

A recent economist article remarked on the importance of using social networks in developing countries to encourage the participation in micro-finance. As to be expected, a study saw that the friends of people who used micro-financing were more likely to use the service themselves. Not all people are equally influential, so the individuals with the […]

To Follow or Not to Follow…

“All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.” ― Aristotle The classic question has always been; if everyone is jumping off a bridge, would you?  This case seems extreme, but it brings up a good point about human psychology.  We tend to follow what others are doing, even if we […]

Crossing the Chasm

In the discussion of equilibria points in reservation price graphs, we discussed the existence of stable equilibria and non stable equilibria. In particular, we noted that the unstable equilibrium was frequently called the “tipping point”, since this was a point that needed to be overcome to achieve widespread adoption. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore is […]

keep looking »

Blogging Calendar

November 2015
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  

Archives