Identifying the Popularity of TED Talks

TED is a global platform that hosts a series of influential talks from experts in various fields, aiming to share innovative ideas and inspire audiences worldwide. As the popularity of TED talks continues to grow, understanding the factors that contribute to their success becomes increasingly important. In this study, we employ network analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) methods to build a predictive model for the popularity of TED talks. We find that the number of languages impacts the popularity at least three times more than other factors, and publishing the TED talk during the weekend, especially on Saturday, significantly enhances the spread of ideas.