The Spread of Virtual Gifting in Live Streaming: The Case of Twitch

This paper examines how gifting spreads among viewers on Twitch, one of the largest live streaming platforms worldwide. Twitch users can give gift subscriptions to other viewers in the chat room, with the majority of gifters opting for community gifting, which is gifting to randomly selected viewers. We identify the random nature of gift-receiving in our data as a natural experiment setting. We investigate whether gift recipients pay it forward, considering various gift types that may either promote or deter the spread of gifting. Our findings reveal that Twitch viewers who receive gift subscriptions are generally more likely to pay it forward than non-recipients, and the positive impact of gift-receiving becomes stronger when the recipient is the sole beneficiary of the giver's gifting behavior. However, we found that gifts from frequent gifters discourage recipients from paying it forward, and gifts from anonymous gifters do not influence the likelihood of viewers becoming future gifters. This research contributes to the existing literature on the spread of online prosocial behavior by providing robust evidence and suggests practical strategies for promoting online gifting.