Characterizing the country-wide adoption and evolution of the Jodel messaging app in Saudi Arabia

TL;DR

This paper empirically analyzes the initial nationwide adoption and evolution of the anonymous, location-based social media app Jodel in Saudi Arabia in 2017, revealing early growth patterns and community development.

Contribution

It provides a detailed, data-driven characterization of the early adoption phase of a new social media platform, focusing on temporal and geographical dynamics from the operator’s perspective.

Findings

Early adoption patterns of Jodel in Saudi Arabia are mapped and analyzed.

Community growth shows distinct temporal and geographical evolution.

The study reveals insights into the initial saturation process of a new social media network.

Abstract

Social media is subject to constant growth and evolution, yet little is known about their early phases of adoption. To shed light on this aspect, this paper empirically characterizes the initial and country-wide adoption of a new type of social media in Saudi Arabia that happened in 2017. Unlike established social media, the studied network Jodel is anonymous and location-based to form hundreds of independent communities country-wide whose adoption pattern we compare. We take a detailed and full view from the operators perspective on the temporal and geographical dimension on the evolution of these different communities -- from their very first the first months of establishment to saturation. This way, we make the early adoption of a new type of social media visible, a process that is often invisible due to the lack of data covering the first days of a new network.