“Nerds of a Feather”: Homophilic Drivers of Worldwide Video Game Viewership on Twitch

IF 3 4区管理学 Q1 INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE

Journal of Global Information Technology Management Pub Date : 2023-07-03 DOI:10.1080/1097198X.2023.2235231

Ravi Thambusamy, E. M. Church

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT Twitch is a global online live streaming platform which is redefining how user-generated video content is produced and consumed. Streamers in countries all over the world have flocked to Twitch to broadcast themselves playing video games or engaging in other activities. Twitch has the potential to generate significant revenues for successful streamers. However, despite worldwide explosive growth in Twitch streamers, the number of streamers who actually gather a large enough viewer base to be called popular is rather small. This study examines these successful streamers and attempts to explain global Twitch viewership based on homophily and the tendencies of viewers to gravitate to streamers who seem most like themselves. A model of Twitch viewership is developed and tested based on four aspects of homophily. Ultimately, a Poisson panel regression analysis of data gathered on 207 of the most popular Twitch streamers from 27 countries shows that streamers who actively promote homophily in its various forms through their streaming practices have accrued a greater number of viewers than those who do not. The research’s implications for streamers, the Twitch platform itself, and researchers are also discussed.

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“羽毛的书呆子”:Twitch上全球视频游戏收视率的同性恋驱动者

Twitch是一个全球性的在线直播平台，它正在重新定义用户生成的视频内容是如何生产和消费的。世界各地的直播者都涌向Twitch，直播自己玩电子游戏或从事其他活动。Twitch有潜力为成功的流媒体用户创造可观的收入。然而，尽管Twitch主播在世界范围内呈爆炸式增长，但真正聚集了足够大的观众基础并被称为受欢迎的主播数量却相当少。本研究考察了这些成功的流媒体，并试图解释基于同质性和观众倾向于吸引谁看起来最像自己的流媒体的全球Twitch观众。基于同质性的四个方面，我们开发并测试了Twitch的收视率模型。最终，对来自27个国家的207名最受欢迎的Twitch主播的数据进行的泊松面板回归分析表明，通过流媒体实践积极促进各种形式的同质性的主播比那些不这样做的主播积累了更多的观众。该研究对流媒体，Twitch平台本身和研究人员的影响也进行了讨论。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Global Information Technology Management INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE-

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

10.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Global Information Technology Management (JGITM) is a refereed international journal that is supported by Global IT scholars from all over the world. JGITM publishes articles related to all aspects of the application of information technology for international business. The journal also considers a variety of methodological approaches and encourages manuscript submissions from authors all over the world, both from academia and industry. In addition, the journal will also include reviews of MIS books that have bearing on global aspects. Practitioner input will be specifically solicited from time-to-time in the form of invited columns or interviews. Besides quality work, at a minimum each submitted article should have the following three components: an MIS (Management Information Systems) topic, an international orientation (e.g., cross cultural studies or strong international implications), and evidence (e.g., survey data, case studies, secondary data, etc.). Articles in the Journal of Global Information Technology Management include, but are not limited to: -Cross-cultural IS studies -Frameworks/models for global information systems (GIS) -Development, evaluation and management of GIS -Information Resource Management -Electronic Commerce -Privacy & Security -Societal impacts of IT in developing countries -IT and Economic Development -IT Diffusion in developing countries -IT in Health Care -IT human resource issues -DSS/EIS/ES in international settings -Organizational and management structures for GIS -Transborder data flow issues -Supply Chain Management -Distributed global databases and networks -Cultural and societal impacts -Comparative studies of nations -Applications and case studies