An Empirical Study of Virtual Social Networks

Virtual social network is a kind of social network established through indirect interactions between individuals, especially through online interactions. Virtual social network has significant implications on business operations, governing, scientific research, and social relations. This paper describes several virtual social networks and studies their properties and effects using empirical approach and computer simulations. Furthermore, the authors find that these virtual social networks have similar distributions with respect to the frequency of nodes and different edges. These distributions are similar between directed networks and undirected networks. In addition, through simulations they demonstrate that the roles played by different nodes in a virtual social network are unequal. Limitations of this study and future research directions are also presented.