The competition-based information propagation in online social networks

Information propagation in Online Social Networks is of great interest to many researchers. Common issues on the existing models include complete network structure requirement, topic dependent model parameters, isolated spreading assumption and so on. In this paper, we study the characteristics of information propagation for multiple topics based on the data collected from Sina Weibo (one of the most popular microblogging services in China). According to the observations, we propose a Competition-based Multi-topic Information Propagation (CMIP) model without the existence of network structure. From a perspective of topic competition, we treat the information propagation as two stages: the gain and the loss of user attention resources. Simulation results validate the model and verify that this model effectively generates the singlepeak and succession phenomenon in the propagation of information and is consistent with observations.