Analyzing the Ecosystem of Iranian websites for Watching and Downloading videos based on User Behavior

Due to the evolution of media technologies in the field of production and distribution of media products and services, user behavior has become an important element in shaping the ecosystem of video watching and downloading websites. In this regard, the current research is focused on the study of the video content consumption behavior of the users and has examined the communication pattern of the members of the ecosystem of Iranian video sites with the technique of social network analysis. The current research was conducted with a quantitative approach and social network analysis method and has 2 research phases: a) Sampling of Iranian video download and watch sites through web scraping method b) Visualization, community detection, and social network analysis of Iranian video watch and download websites. According to the research findings, the ecosystem of video downloading and watching websites in Iran includes 144 elements and 8 communities and includes communities of user-generated content, Video on Demand, legal purchase, legal reception, illegal reception, subtitles, and East Asian content. The legal downloading community is larger than other communities and is the most important community related to video downloading and watching websites. The present study showed that the audience's needs are influential in referring to the video platform and even in moving between the platforms, on the other hand, it can be argued that being an audience has found a searching state and the audience is moving between societies in search of satisfying their needs. According to the active audience theory, it has the ability to influence the media ecosystem through behavior.