A sequential game-theoretic study of the retweeting behavior in Sina Weibo

Abstract

Retweeting behavior is a key mechanism for information diffusion in microblogging services such as Sina Weibo. It is the mechanism of retweeting that leads to the fast and wide diffusion of information in Weibo. Game theory has been applied to various fields as an important tool for studying user's behavior. In this paper, a sequential game model has been applied on studying Weibo user's retweeting behavior. We propose a retweeting game model of Weibo users. By Markov perfect equilibrium strategy we estimate the retweeting probability of the message, of which the continuity and existence have been proved. Comparing the retweeting game model with the Weibo data, we find that the retweeting game model can be used to describe the user's retweeting behaviors. Experimental results show that in the retweeting game model the trust factor $$\delta $$? and the amount of information k have a great influence on the retweeting rate.