Abstract:

This research is concerned with practical and research challenges related to understanding the nature of online interactive platforms. We agree with scholars that these platforms and features necessitate the call for theory of network as a novel approach to better understand their underpinnings. This paper contributes to further understanding of these platforms from theory of network. We examine one of the leading online interactive health networks in Europe. We demonstrate that the interactive platform examined exhibits essential structural properties that characterize most real networks. In particular, we focus on the largest connected component, so-called a giant component (GC), to better understand network formation. Dynamic network analysis helps us to observe how the GC has evolved over time and to identify a particular pattern towards emerging a GC. We suggest that the network measures examined for the platform should be considered as novel and complementary metrics to those used in conventional web and social analytics. We argue that various stages of GC development can be a promising indicator of the strength and endurance of the interactions on the platform. Platform managers may take into account basic stages of the emergence of the GC to determine varying degrees of product attractiveness.