Cash App and Network Effect
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/11/13/squares-cash-app-is-close-to-breaking-even.aspx Square’s Cash App generated adjusted revenue of $159 million in the third quarter of the year, which is more than a quarter of the company’s total adjusted revenue. Cash App was able to gain users fast and with low cost because of the network effect. Cash App’s rate of downloads has surpassed its biggest […]
Information Cascades and Indonesia’s Slash and Burn Problem
https://www.todayonline.com/commentary/heres-economic-theory-curb-haze-causing-forest-fires-indonesia In the article linked above, Chew Soon Beng and Daniel Ong Qi Ming apply economic theory to explain the problematic slash and burn activity which plagues Indonesia today. According to these authors, the slash and burn farming technique has resulted in copious amounts of forest fires in Indonesia. This has particular consequences for the […]
How vaccines hinder disease spread
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2019/11/skipping-measles-vaccine-tied-triple-risk-disease-spread This article details the results of 16 years’ worth of data on reported measles cases and disease susceptibility, finding that unvaccinated people are three to four times more infectious than those with measles who have been vaccinated. Over 2,000 cases, ranging from 2001 to 2017, were analyzed in the study. Analysis showed that effective […]
“Kanye West’s secret to building a footwear empire to compete with Nike”
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kanye-west-made-yeezy-brand-a-success-2018-4 This article discusses how Kanye West’s Yeezy shoes become a trend that can compete with Nike in just a few years. How does Yeezy become so popular that everyone wants a pair even when the price is so expensive? The success of Yeezy cannot be realized without Kanye West’s genius marketing strategy and her […]
Cocoon: Fostering Small and Personal Networks
https://qz.com/1753485/former-facebook-employees-are-creating-a-social-media-network-for-your-family/ While there are still many people who use social media as a tool to expand their social networks and gain as many likes, followers, and friends as possible, new trends have shown that many people have started to use social media to foster close relationships within a personal network. In inspiration of this new […]
Integrating the Mentally Ill is a Nash Equilibrium
In the article written by Lorenzo Canonico, the author goes on to explain how “human insanity” is what pushes us as a civilization and is the source of our genius. And yet, we as a society tend to marginalize those who are different. John Nash was labeled “insane” due to his schizophrenia, he was marginalized […]
Why removing Instagram likes is good for influencers, especially “micro-influencers”
When Instagram announced it was removing likes worldwide, millions of influencers gripped their phones in fear. Without likes – a key signal of popularity – how would influencers persuade brands of being the best fit for a sponsorship? Recently, brands have been targeting “micro-influencers” – individuals with smaller, yet sizable followings of 10,000-50,000 followers. Traditionally, […]
People Who Have Smaller Network are More Likely to Spreads Fake News on Twitter
Scientific analysis proofs that Twitter is excellent platform for spreading actual news and it is even better at spreading fake news unfortunately. Moreover, false claims about politics spread further than other category of news included in the analysis. In fact, numerically, it took the truth about six times as long as falsehood to reach 1500 […]
Amazon, Diapers, and the Network Effect
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-diapers-price-war-2010-11 Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, did not become am international powerhouse on its own. A lot of Amazon’s success was dependent on the acquisition of various online retail stores. In other words, Amazon expanded rapidly by buying their competitors. One such competitor was in the diaper industry, Diapers.com, which was owned by Quidisi. […]