Analyzing user behavior of the micro-blogging website Sinaweibo during hot social events

TL;DR

This study analyzes user behavior on SinaWeibo during 21 hot social events in 2011, revealing gender involvement, content type effects, and reposting patterns to understand social media dynamics.

Contribution

It provides a statistical analysis of user behaviors and content factors influencing reposting during major social events on SinaWeibo, a leading Chinese micro-blogging platform.

Findings

Male users are more likely to participate.

Posts with pictures and verified users are reposted more.

URLs in posts decrease reposting likelihood.

Abstract

The spread and resonance of users' opinions on SinaWeibo, the most popular micro-blogging website in China, are tremendously influential, having significantly affected the processes of many real-world hot social events. We select 21 hot events that were widely discussed on SinaWeibo in 2011, and do some statistical analyses. Our main findings are that (i) male users are more likely to be involved, (ii) messages that contain pictures and those posted by verified users are more likely to be reposted, while those with URLs are less likely, (iii) gender factor, for most events, presents no significant difference in reposting likelihood.