Increased similarity with one’s friends’ choices in a social network leads a user to engage further with the social network. Participation is modelled based on user utility derived both from participating in preferred events and from joint participation with friends. The model implies that users will participate more as they learn that they share more interests with their friends. These implications are tested using panel data from an online video gaming network in which users can learn the characteristics of friends’ recent game play behaviour. The focal user’s time on the platform increases substantially as friend’s choices become more similar to the focal user’s behaviour. These results are robust to multiple possible sources of endogeneity.

在社交网络中与朋友选择的相似度增加导致用户进一步参与社交网络。参与是基于从参与首选事件和与朋友的共同参与中获得的用户效用建模的。该模型暗示用户将更多地参与，因为他们了解到他们与朋友分享更多的兴趣。这些影响使用来自在线视频游戏网络的面板数据进行测试，用户可以在其中了解朋友最近玩游戏行为的特征。随着朋友的选择变得更类似于焦点用户的行为，焦点用户在平台上的时间显着增加。这些结果对多种可能的内生性来源是稳健的。