The few-get-richer: a surprising consequence of popularity-based rankings?

What is it about?

Ranking algorithms play a crucial role in online platforms ranging from search engines to recommender systems. In this paper, we identify a surprising consequence of popularity-based rankings: categories that contain few items will attract more traffic than categories that contain many items.

Featured Image

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Our analyses highlight a potential unintended effect of regulations that ‘ban’ particular ‘alternative’ news sources known for spreading ‘fake news’. When a sizeable proportion of users have a preference for identifiable ‘alternative’ news sources, the removal of some of these news sources might lead to an increase in the total traffic attracted by the remaining ‘alternative’ news sources. This could result in more overall exposure to ‘fake news’!