Agents of Diffusion - Insights from a Survey of Facebook Users

In times of web 2.0 and its strong focus on user interaction in business models, entrepreneurs and investors of internet businesses often back up their ambitious growth expectations with the argument of viral distribution. However, there exists little evidence on the determinants of consumers' willingness to voluntarily and actively exchange information about internet applications. Based on survey data of 475 Facebook users, this paper makes a contribution to fill this gap. Key findings are that passive (observation of other users) and active (purposeful recommendations from peers) viral channels are equally important to make users aware of a novel product. Active viral channels, however, dominate in convincing users to actually start using a product or service. We also find that users are altruistically motivated to recommend applications and predominantly use built-in invitation mechanisms in the application as a communication channel for recommendations. This paper contributes to the field of electronic marketing in two ways. First and foremost it brings forward empirical evidence on the interpersonal aspects of the mechanisms behind viral distribution and word-of-mouth marketing. Second, it presents the illustrative case of Facebook which has become a fore-runner in online marketing when it comes to taking into account user interaction and behavior.