An Analysis of Verifications in Microblogging Social Networks -- Sina Weibo

Sina Weibo (Weibo) is a fast growing microblogging social network with total user size closer to Twitter. Weibo adopts a mechanism to verify users, so that the public can identify true accounts of celebrities and official channels of certain organizations. The verification mechanism builds trust and authenticity to the source, and hence, stimulates people to actively participate on the platform. However, how the verifications affect the user behaviors in microblogging social networks have never been fully investigated. This paper analyzes the Weibo social network with verifications, by comparing the user microblogging behaviors between verified users and unverified users and studying the social network evolvements of these two group of users. In addition, a method is proposed to approximately reconstruct the network evolvement, and lower bound quasi-densification exponents for the social networks are found. Empirical evidence demonstrates that verifications play a significant role in motivating users to have more interactions in a social network.