Understanding what drives popularity is critical in today's digital service economy, where content creators compete for consumer attention. Prior studies have primarily emphasized the role of content features, yet creators often misjudge what audiences actually value. This study applies Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) modeling to a large corpus of TED Talks, treating the platform as a case of digital service provision in which creators (speakers) and consumers (audiences) interact. By comparing the thematic supply of creators with the demand expressed in audience engagement, we identify persistent mismatches between producer offerings and consumer preferences. Our longitudinal analysis further reveals that temporal dynamics exert a stronger influence on consumer engagement than thematic content, suggesting that when content is delivered may matter more than what is delivered. These findings challenge the dominant assumption that content features are the primary drivers of popularity and highlight the importance of timing and contextual factors in shaping consumer responses. The results provide new insights into consumer attention dynamics on digital platforms and carry practical implications for marketers, platform managers, and content creators seeking to optimize audience engagement strategies.

翻译：在当今数字服务经济中，理解驱动流行度的因素至关重要，内容创作者在此环境中竞相争夺消费者注意力。先前的研究主要强调内容特征的作用，但创作者往往误判受众实际重视的因素。本研究将潜在狄利克雷分配（LDA）模型应用于TED演讲的大型语料库，将该平台视为创作者（演讲者）与消费者（观众）互动的数字服务提供案例。通过比较创作者的主题供给与观众参与中表达的需求，我们识别出生产者供给与消费者偏好之间持续存在的错配。我们的纵向分析进一步揭示，时间动态对消费者参与度的影响强于主题内容，这表明内容交付的时机可能比交付的内容更为重要。这些发现挑战了内容特征是流行度主要驱动因素的主流假设，并突显了时机与情境因素在塑造消费者反应中的重要性。研究结果为数字平台上的消费者注意力动态提供了新见解，并对寻求优化受众参与策略的市场营销人员、平台管理者和内容创作者具有实际意义。