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Characteristics of social networks in the Chinese Web

We look at the underlying friendships and relationships between Chinese Internet users. We identify the presence and characteristics of the different types of online friendships and online relationships by analyzing various online social networks. First, we look at the concept of guanxi as it is applied to the interaction between web sites. Guanxi is a type of dyadic social interaction based on feelings and trust which has been well studied by scholars in China. We define guanxi in the web: particular linking patterns that appear in the web as well as supporting textual evidence in the web pages which we believe are indicative of the presence and varying strengths of the underlying guanxi between Chinese web site owners. Through our empirical study of the Chinese web, the general web, and the Japanese, Iranian, and French web, we show that guanxi between web sites is a more prevalent feature in the Chinese web. Next, we study the formation of online friendships in Douban, an online social networking platform frequently used by the youth in China. We look at several factors that can affect the evolution of friendships such as having memberships in the same discussion groups and sharing common interests or common friends. We compare these factors in influencing the formation of online friendships. Our work provides the first study on the underlying relationships between web sites in the Chinese web and the first large scale empirical analysis on the evolution of friendships in a Chinese online social network.

  1. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/3074
  2. Louis Yu and Valerie King, "The Evolution of Friendships in Chinese Online Social Networks," in Proceeding of the 2010 International Conference on Social Computing (SocialCom2010), 2010.
  3. Valerie King, Louis Yu, and Yan Zhuang, "Guanxi in the Chinese Web," in Proceeding of the IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, vol.4, pp.9-17, 2009 International Conference on Social Computing (SocialCom2009).
  4. Valerie King, Louis Yu, and Yan Zhuang, "Guanxi in the Chinese web - a Study of Mutual Linking," in Proceeding of the 17th International Conference on World Wide Web, pp.1161-1162, 2008 International World Wide Web conference (WWW2008).
  5. Louis Yu, Kin Fun Li, and Weibin Liao, "A Study of Chinese Web Characteristics and Their Implications on Web Search," in Proceeding of the 1st International Multi-Symposiums in Computer and Computational Sciences, vol.2, pp.468-474, 2006 International Multi-Symposiums in Computer and Computational Sciences (IMSCCS2006).
  6. Louis Yu, Kin Fun Li, and Eric G. Manning, "The Adaptability of English Based Web Search Algorithms to Chinese Search Engines," in Proceeding of the 8th Asia Pacific Web Conference, vol.3841, pp.402-413, 2006 Asia Pacific Web Conference (APWeb2006).
  7. Louis Yu, Eric G. Manning, and Kin Fun Li, "An Adaptive and Systematic Approach for Service Level Agreements," in Proceeding of the 1st International Workshop on Network Architecture and Service Models, pp.125-128, 2005 International Workshop on Network Architecture and Service Models (NASM2005).
  8. Louis Yu, Eric G. Manning, and Kin Fun Li, "Heuristic Approaches to Service Level Agreements in Packet Networks," in Internet and Network Economics, vol.3828, pp.1003-1012, 2005 International Workshop on Internet and Network Economics.
Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/3074
Date04 October 2010
CreatorsYu, Louis Lei
ContributorsKing, Valerie D.
Source SetsUniversity of Victoria
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
RightsAvailable to the World Wide Web

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