The Multidimensional Study of Viral Campaigns as Branching Processes

TL;DR

This paper analyzes viral campaigns as branching processes, providing new insights into modeling and parameter estimation, with implications for understanding campaign dynamics in virtual environments.

Contribution

It introduces a multidimensional approach to studying viral campaigns as branching processes, improving parameter estimation and revealing time-generation relationships.

Findings

Reduced time for model parameter estimation

Identified key aspects of time-generations relationship

Validated branching process models with real campaign data

Abstract

Viral campaigns on the Internet may follow variety of models, depending on the content, incentives, personal attitudes of sender and recipient to the content and other factors. Due to the fact that the knowledge of the campaign specifics is essential for the campaign managers, researchers are constantly evaluating models and real-world data. The goal of this article is to present the new knowledge obtained from studying two viral campaigns that took place in a virtual world which followed the branching process. The results show that it is possible to reduce the time needed to estimate the model parameters of the campaign and, moreover, some important aspects of time-generations relationship are presented.