The Impact of Curation Algorithms on Social Network Content Quality and Structure

Ron Berman and Zsolt Katona ()
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Zsolt Katona: Marketing Department, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, 2220 Piedmont Ave., Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

No 16-08, Working Papers from NET Institute

Abstract: Curation algorithms are selection and ranking algorithms on social media that help consumers experience better content. These algorithms have been blamed in the past few years for the creation of “filter bubbles” and other phenomena in social media. We analyze a platform with producers and consumers of content to understand the impact of curation algorithms on the amount of friends each consumer has and the quality of content created by each producer. Our model takes into account both vertical and horizontal differentiation and analyzes three different types of algorithms. We find that without algorithmic curation, the number of friends a consumer has and the quality of cotent on the platform are strategic complements. When algorithmic curation is introduced, the resulting process makes consumers less selective in their choice of whom to follow. In equilibrium, producers of content receive lower payoffs because they enter into a prisoner’s dilema like contest. The quality of content on the platform may increase if the marginal cost of producing this quality is high enough but not too high. Both of these effects may result theoretically in more diverse content consumed by consumers, but in equilibrium we find that a few of the algorithms may reduce the horizontal distance of matched content, which may result in a filter bubble. We identify an algorithm that focuses on filtering low quality items that results in higher quality of content as well as higher diversity under specific conditions.

Keywords: Social Media; Filtering; Ranking; Filter Bubble; Algorithmic Curation; Game Theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 D85 L82 L86 M31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mkt and nep-net
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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