Skype data of 500 million people reveals the real patterns of social adoption

Global patterns of adoption spreading are induced by local adoption cascades initiated by multiple spontaneous adopters arriving at a constant rate, amplified by a large number of adoptions induced by social influence, and controlled by individuals who are immune to the actual adoption. This study shows that the structure of real-world adoption clusters is radically different from previous expectations. Vulnerable adoptions, induced by a single adopting neighbor, appear to be important only locally. Instead stable adopters, who are initially resisting to be exposed, are actually responsible for the emergence of global social adoption.