Persistence and Success in the Attention Economy

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the dynamics of content upload and success on YouTube, revealing that increased uploads decrease success probability despite improving quality, highlighting paradoxes in the attention economy.

Contribution

It provides a large-scale empirical analysis of YouTube content production, uncovering the paradoxical relationship between upload frequency, quality, and success.

Findings

More uploads decrease success likelihood.

Average quality of submissions increases with uploads.

Success resembles a lottery with low odds.

Abstract

A hallmark of the attention economy is the competition for the attention of others. Thus people persistently upload content to social media sites, hoping for the highly unlikely outcome of topping the charts and reaching a wide audience. And yet, an analysis of the production histories and success dynamics of 10 million videos from \texttt{YouTube} revealed that the more frequently an individual uploads content the less likely it is that it will reach a success threshold. This paradoxical result is further compounded by the fact that the average quality of submissions does increase with the number of uploads, with the likelihood of success less than that of playing a lottery.