Abstract
On many social media and user---generated content sites, users can not only upload content but also create links with other users to follow their activities. It is interesting to ask whether the resulting user---user Followers' Network is based more on social ties, or shared interests in similar content. This paper reports our preliminary progress in answering this question using around five years of data from social video---sharing site vimeo.
Many links in the Followers' Network are between users who do not have any videos in common, which would imply the network is not interest---based, but rather has a social character. However, the Followers' Network also exhibits properties unlike other social networks, for instance, clustering co---efficient is low, links are frequently not reciprocated, and users form links across vast geographical distances. In addition, analysis of the relationship strength, calculated as the number of commonly liked videos, people who follow each other and share some "likes" have more video likes in common than the general population. We conclude by speculating on the reasons for these differences and proposals for further work.