Facebook, Online Books, and Online Dating: Network Effects in Tech
The meteoric rise of relatively young companies in this Information Age has seen many companies achieve user bases of unprecedented scale. Notably, many such companies—Facebook/Meta, Netflix, TikTok/ByteDance, and Tesla come to mind—are based in the tech sector, and these technology companies have earned household-name status in just a few years, far faster than most […]
Bayes rule for Covid-19 testing
https://towardsdatascience.com/false-positives-negatives-and-bayes-rule-for-covid-19-testing-750eaba84acd The article “False positives/negatives and Bayes rule for covid-19 testing” talks about how we use Bayes rule in predicting the confidence of Covid-19 testing. It is necessary and useful because there is no 100% precise testing. Besides testing negative correctly, testing people false negative, false positive, true negative will give them cost, and the […]
Information Cascade in TV
In recent years, there has been a popularization of TV shows on streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ to name a few. The success of these shows can be attributed to the rise of a global pandemic creating a new market for at-home entertainment. However, that does not explain how with over 1,800 […]
Information Cascade and Tourist Destination Imagination: Burying the Gem
References: Pan et al. (2020). Investigating tourist destination choice: Effect of destination image from social network members. Tourism Management, 83 (2021), 104217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104217 We know and love hidden gems: travel destinations and local attractions “untainted” by the swarms of tourists. Yet, from my experience on the ground, I still stick the recommended tourist traps […]
The Role of Social Media in Collective Action and The Capitol Insurrection
In this class we have discussed how acts of protest large and small constitute ‘high risk’ activities, and how individuals choose whether or not to engage in rebellious behavior based on the support that they find within their own communities. In the case of reporting a coworker to a superior or confronting someone about cheating […]
“Give Me a Book Rec”—Information Cascades in Books
When looking for something to read, where do you typically look first? The typical reader would consult a bestseller’s list, such as the top books on Amazon or the New York Times Best Seller list. Reading itself can be an arduous task, and the quality of experience is highly dependent on the type of book […]
The Cryptocurrency Market, Poker, Gaming, and Their Network Effects
The article describes how network effects contribute to the popularity of the cryptocurrency market and the success of some poker products and gaming. The author started the discussion by his firsthand experience of the network effects when he was working for the world’s biggest poker companies and game publishers. The success of a poker product, […]
Network Diffusion in Regional Science: From the Game of Life to Cellular Automata models
One of the main focuses in the course is the way how individuals’ decisions are influenced by their relationships with other people. Commonly, within a network, an individual’s actions are heavily dependent on other people’s decisions, explaining the occurrence of concepts like information cascade and network effects. Regarding the network structure, it is possible to […]
Information Cascades That Kicked Off Ancient Empires
The diffusion of new technologies and innovations have defined the history of the human race, and are at the center of much historical research and debate. In particular, innovations in military technology starting approximately 3000 years ago spread from society to society and allowed for the rise of the first ancient empires. This era of […]
The Amazon Coat: Popularity, Power Laws and Network Effects
Brands and influencers are using social media and shopping platforms in a way that breaks down the rich get richer dynamic, but this time with advantages for small brand products so that with the right methods, lesser known brands’ product can be just as popular as a Canada Goose jacket. How does this happen? An […]
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