Socio-Spatial Properties of Online Location-Based Social Networks

TLDR

The spatial structure of large‑scale online social networks has been largely inaccessible until recent location‑based services provided accurate geographic data linking users to their online connections. This study systematically analyzes the spatial properties of social networks formed by users of three major online location‑based services. The analysis reveals that about 40 % of links span less than 100 km, that users exhibit heterogeneous characteristic spatial lengths for ties and triads, and that gravity‑like mechanisms appear to shape connection formation, constituting the first large‑scale investigation of socio‑spatial properties in such networks.

Abstract

The spatial structure of large-scale online social networks has been largely unaccessible due to the lack of available and accurate data about people’s location. However, with the recent surging popularity of location-based social services, data about the geographic position of users have been available for the first time, together with their online social connections. In this work we present a comprehensive study of the spatial properties of the social networks arising among users of three main popular online location-based services. We observe robust universal features across them: while all networks exhibit about 40% of links below 100 km, we further discover strong heterogeneity across users, with different characteristic spatial lengths of interaction across both their social ties and social triads. We provide evidence that mechanisms akin to gravity models may influence how these social connections are created over space. Our results constitute the first large-scale study to unravel the socio-spatial properties of online location-based social networks.