Study on service diffusion in Mobile Social Network

How to popularize the own Mobile Value-added Services (MVSs) in current mobile networks is interesting and important to many SP/CPs (Service Providers/Content Providers). In this paper, we focus on the study of service diffusion of MVSs and provide a novel methodology, which investigate that from a new perspective of epidemic spread. Firstly, we argue about the characteristics of Mobile Social Network (MSN), which is composed of mobile users, and analyze various factors that impact the subscribers to customize the MVSs. Then epidemic dynamics is used to depict the service diffusion and some conclusions including marketing strategy have been carried out thereinafter. Finally, through a series of experiments, we find that: 1) by using Acquaintance-First marketing strategy, the MVSs will quickly pop up at a low cost; 2) SP/CPs should do efforts to the effective spreading rate, which can result in a higher popularity of the service.