Unwavering interests in influencers: Influencer-focused barrages in social media product review videos

Barrages, or live text comments displayed on the video interface, are valuable audience-contributed content. This research examines barrages commenting on influencers (influencer-focused barrages) and their effect on the effectiveness of product review videos. A dataset comprising 257,650 barrages in 295 popular influencer-created product review videos on Bilibili was analyzed. The results show that barrage volume positively affects the effectiveness of videos, as measured by the counts of likes and collects. Importantly, influencer-focused barrages, although comprising a small portion of the total barrage volume, exert an additional positive impact. Moreover, this effect differs across videos of various durations and influencer genders. It is more pronounced in longer videos and those featuring female influencers compared to shorter videos and those by male influencers. A content analysis further reveals differences in barrage content directed at male and female influencers. An additional experimental study further confirms the effect of influencer-focused barrage volume on video effectiveness. This research enhances both theoretical and practical understandings of barrage content and its impact on influencer videos, providing researchers, businesses, and influencers with a novel perspective and useful insights.