The Effect of Superstar Absence on Content Production: Evidence from Live-Video Streaming

This lunch seminaris organized by ABRI and the KIN Center for Digital Innovation at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.Check their website for more information.

Abstract

Multi-sided platforms are frequently reliant on the existence of a few “superstar” content creators who attract outsized demand. Yet, our understanding of platform dynamics when such content creators disappear is only beginning to emerge. And while extant research suggests star departure can have depressive effects on residual content creators, such evidence is primarily reliant on those stars deplatforming entirely, rather than simply being absent for any of the plethora of reasons that habitually affect people (viz. sickness, personal travel, etc.). In this work, we investigate the effect of such absences on supply-side content production in the online live-video streaming platform Twitch.tv. In doing so, we report the results of a study concerning the Fortnite superstar streamer Richard Tyler “Ninja” Blevins over 2018-2020. Exploiting Ninja’s temporary and unexpected absences from his streaming schedule, we find that residual streamers are more likely to supply content on these days and are also more likely to provide longer streams. We trace a down a demand vacuum capturing effect as the possible mechanism: Ninja’s absence leaves a demand vacuum behind that spurs residual streamers to provide more content to capture said demand. This work contributes to our scholarly understanding of the competitive dynamics between superstars and residual platform complementors and carries meaningful practical implications for platform owners, streamers, and viewers.