Measuring Social Media Network Effects

The first rigorous empirical measurement of what social media platforms are actually worth to users — $78-101 per month per person — with the crucial insight that 20-34% of that value comes from network effects rather than content or features. The methodology matters: incentive-compatible choice experiments with nearly 20,000 users across four major platforms, revealing how tie strength, demographics, and platform purpose shape value differently. For product directors this quantifies the moat that network effects create and explains why platform strategies succeed or fail based on the specific social dynamics they enable. The demographic findings — men valuing connections to women more than to men, platform-specific patterns of racial and age preferences — reveal how social software amplifies existing social structures rather than creating neutral connection spaces.