Abstract:
Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are powerful marketing and communication tools. There are hundreds of SNSs that
have entered and exited the market over time. The coexistence of
multiple SNSs is a rarely observed phenomenon. Most coexisting
SNSs either serve different purposes for its users or have cultural
differences among them. The introduction of a new SNS with a
better set of features can lead to the demise of an existing SNS,
as observed in the transition from Orkut to Facebook. The paper
proposes a model for analyzing the transition of users from one
SNS to another, when a new SNS is introduced in the system.
The game theoretic model proposed considers two major factors
in determining the success of a new SNS. The first being time
that an old SNS gets to stabilise. We study whether the time
that a SNS like Facebook received to monopolize its reach had
a distinguishable effect. The second factor is the set of features
showcased by the new SNS. The results of the model are also
experimentally verified with data collected by means of a survey
