Social links vs. language barriers: decoding the global spread of streaming content

Seoyoung Park, Sanghyeok Park, Taekho You () and Jinhyuk Yun ()
Additional contact information
Seoyoung Park: Soongsil University
Sanghyeok Park: Soongsil University
Taekho You: Pohang University of Science and Technology
Jinhyuk Yun: Soongsil University

Palgrave Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The development of the internet has allowed for the global distribution of content, redefining media communication and property structures through various streaming platforms. Previous studies successfully clarified the factors contributing to trends in each streaming service, yet the similarities and differences between platforms are commonly unexplored; moreover, the influence of social connections and cultural similarity is usually overlooked. We hereby examine the social aspects of three significant streaming services–Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube–with an emphasis on the dissemination of content across countries. Using two-year-long trending chart datasets, we find that streaming content can be divided into two types: video-oriented (Netflix) and audio-oriented (Spotify). This characteristic is differentiated by accounting for the significance of social connectedness and linguistic similarity: audio-oriented content travels via social links, but video-oriented content tends to spread throughout linguistically akin countries. Interestingly, user-generated contents, YouTube, exhibits a dual characteristic by integrating both visual and auditory characteristics, indicating the platform is evolving into unique medium rather than simply residing a midpoint between video and audio media.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-04400-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04400-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04400-2

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().