Raid the Chat Room: The Effects of Group Size on User Engagement in Online Synchronized Communication

Keran Zhao, Yili Hong, Tengteng Ma, Yingda Lu, Yuheng Hu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Online synchronous platforms, such as live streaming, spend tremendous efforts engaging users in a real-time setting, which has gained considerable popularity very recently. While the existing literature finds that the group size of peers positively affects user engagement on asynchronous platforms, the effect of group size remains unexplored in the context of synchronous streaming. In this work, we leverage the unique raid functionality, an exogenous increase in live streaming viewers, and empirically examine how group size affects users’ real-time commenting engagement. Collecting and analyzing chat history in 13,382 playbacks on Twitch, our result suggests that existing viewers (users who engage in the live streaming channel before the raid) tend to engage less after the raid. The findings in this paper indicate a negative effect of group size on viewer engagement in the synchronous communication setting, which theoretically extends the prior literature in user engagement and crowd effects.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication42nd International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2021 TREOs
Subtitle of host publication"Building Sustainability and Resilience with IS: A Call for Action"
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
ISBN (Electronic)9781713893608
StatePublished - 2021
Event42nd International Conference on Information Systems: Building Sustainability and Resilience with IS: A Call for Action, ICIS 2021 TREOs - Austin, United States
Duration: Dec 12 2021Dec 15 2021

Publication series

Name42nd International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2021 TREOs: "Building Sustainability and Resilience with IS: A Call for Action"

Conference

Conference42nd International Conference on Information Systems: Building Sustainability and Resilience with IS: A Call for Action, ICIS 2021 TREOs
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAustin
Period12/12/2112/15/21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Information Systems

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