Promoting content in a real-time messaging platform

Abstract

A real-time messaging platform and method are disclosed which can be used to promote content in the messaging platform. In one embodiment, the promotion system is disclosed which performs initial candidate selection so as to narrow down the set of candidate promotions before applying more expensive processing. The candidate selection takes advantage of the connection graph information associated with accounts in the messaging platform to identify targeted accounts. In another embodiment, the promotion system uses a prediction model to predict a user's engagement with the promotion and utilizes the prediction to assist in ranking the candidate promotions. Promotions can be assigned metrics based, for example, on a weighted combination of user engagement rates, decayed with time to reflect an intuition that recent interactions by one or more users with the promotion will have a greater impact than older interactions with the promotion.

1 . A system comprising:
 one or more computers and one or more storage devices on which are stored instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:   receiving a request to populate a message stream for a requesting user account of a messaging platform, wherein the requesting user account is subscribed to receive messages provided to the real-time messaging platform by a plurality of followee accounts of the messaging platform;   determining that a followee account of the plurality of followee accounts for the requesting user account is connection graph similar to each of one or more promotion accounts according to relationship data representing relationships between accounts maintained by the messaging platform;   in response, selecting one ore more items of promoted content provided by the one or more promotion accounts that are connection graph similar to the followee account of the requesting user account; and   providing, to the requesting user account in response to the request, a message stream having the one ore more items of promoted content provided by the one ore more promotion accounts that are each connection graph similar to the followee account of the requesting user account.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein two accounts are connection graph similar according to the relationship data when a measure of similarity between respective connection graphs for the two accounts satisfies a similarity threshold. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the relationship data for each account comprises connection graph data defining one or more relationships in a respective connection graph representing accounts that are subscribed to receive messages from other accounts. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of promotion accounts is a respective account of the real-time messaging platform that has provided one or more items of promoted content. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein, for each account, the connection graph data for the account further includes engagement metrics that measure engagements by the account with messages in the streams of messages, and
 wherein a measure of similarity between two connection graphs is based on a similarity between respective engagement metrics included in the graph data of the respective connection graphs.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein a measure of similarity between two connection graphs is a measure of (i) a number of accounts represented in the two connection graphs following same respective accounts, (ii) a number of accounts represented in the two connection graphs engaging with same respective messages posted to the platform, or both. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise maintaining a candidate map that associates promotion accounts with sufficiently similar connection graphs, and
 wherein determining that the followee account of the requesting user account is connection graph similar to the one or more promotion accounts comprises determining that the followee account is mapped to the one or more promotion accounts in the candidate map.   
     
     
         8 . A method performed by a plurality of computers of a messaging platform, the method comprising:
 receiving a request to populate a message stream for a requesting user account of the messaging platform, wherein the requesting user account is subscribed to receive messages provided to the real-time messaging platform by a plurality of followee accounts of the messaging platform;   determining that a followee account of the plurality of followee accounts for the requesting user account is connection graph similar to each of one or more promotion accounts according to relationship data representing relationships between accounts maintained by the messaging platform;   in response, selecting one or more items of promoted content provided by the one or more promotion accounts that are connection graph similar to the followee account of the requesting user account; and   providing, to the requesting user account in response to the request, a message stream having the one or more items of promoted content provided by the one or more promotion accounts that are each connection graph similar to the followee account of the requesting user account.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein two accounts are connection graph similar according to the relationship data when a measure of similarity between respective connection graphs for the two accounts satisfies a similarity threshold. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the relationship data for each account comprises connection graph data defining one or more relationships in a respective connection graph representing accounts that are subscribed to receive messages from other accounts. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein each of the plurality of promotion accounts is a respective account of the real-time messaging platform that has provided one or more items of promoted content. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein, for each account, the connection graph data for the account further includes engagement metrics that measure engagements by the account with messages in the streams of messages, and
 wherein a measure of similarity between two connection graphs is based on a similarity between respective engagement metrics included in the graph data of the respective connection graphs.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein a measure of similarity between two connection graphs is a measure of (i) a number of accounts represented in the two connection graphs following same respective accounts, (ii) a number of accounts represented in the two connection graphs engaging with same respective messages posted to the platform, or both. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising maintaining a candidate map that associates promotion accounts with sufficiently similar connection graphs, and
 wherein determining that the followee account of the requesting user account is connection graph similar to the one or more promotion accounts comprises determining that the followee account is mapped to the one or more promotion accounts in the candidate map.   
     
     
         15 . One or more non-transitory computer storage media encoded with computer program instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
 receiving a request to populate a message stream for a requesting user account of a messaging platform, wherein the requesting user account is subscribed to receive messages provided to the real-time messaging platform by a plurality of followee accounts of the messaging platform;   determining that a followee account of the plurality of followee accounts for the requesting user account is connection graph similar to each of one or more promotion accounts according to relationship data representing relationships between accounts maintained by the messaging platform;   in response, selecting one or more items of promoted content provided by the one or more promotion accounts that are connection graph similar to the followee account of the requesting user account; and   providing, to the requesting user account in response to the request, a message stream having the one or more items of promoted content provided by the one or more promotion accounts that are each connection graph similar to the followee account of the requesting user account.   
     
     
         16 . The one or more computer storage media of  claim 15 , wherein two accounts are connection graph similar according to the relationship data when a measure of similarity between respective connection graphs for the two accounts satisfies a similarity threshold. 
     
     
         17 . The one or more computer storage media of  claim 16 , wherein the relationship data for each account comprises connection graph data defining one or more relationships in a respective connection graph representing accounts that are subscribed to receive messages from other accounts. 
     
     
         18 . The one or more computer storage media of  claim 15 , wherein each of the plurality of promotion accounts is a respective account of the real-time messaging platform that has provided one or more items of promoted content. 
     
     
         19 . The one or more computer storage media of  claim 15 , wherein, for each account, the connection graph data for the account further includes engagement metrics that measure engagements by the account with messages in the streams of messages, and
 wherein a measure of similarity between two connection graphs is based on a similarity between respective engagement metrics included in the graph data of the respective connection graphs.   
     
     
         20 . The one or more computer storage media of  claim 15 , wherein a measure of similarity between two connection graphs is a measure of (i) a number of accounts represented in the two connection graphs following same respective accounts, (ii) a number of accounts represented in the two connection graphs engaging with same respective messages posted to the platform, or both. 
     
     
         21 . The one or more computer storage media of  claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise maintaining a candidate map that associates promotion accounts with sufficiently similar connection graphs, and
 wherein determining that the followee account of the requesting user account is connection graph similar to the one or more promotion accounts comprises determining that the followee account is mapped to the one or more promotion accounts in the candidate map.