Is Netflix recommendation engine the best there is?

4. Another dimension is how many stars the movie got, or in Netflix's case - number of thumbs up and thumbs down. Not sure how many people vote that way, but ideally it will be something like an IMDB score. I am quite prepared to give a try to what most people consider really good, but IMBD score is 0-10, while thumbs up is much more ambiguous and it probably works against movie buffs, who will thumb up only the best, but will be drowned in tastes of the average person. A movie that was voted higher than 8 on IMDB by a lot of people is highly likely a good movie that should be watched, regardless of genre, language, etc. The only problem IMDB has right now is a mass of Indian and Turkish voters (not sure if it's bots or just a flashmob crowd) that got quite a lot of their movies in the IMDB top. However, Netflix does not have this dimension at all. Movies that were highly rated by critics or curated lists also don't show up and so the judgement goes towards a common denominator, instead of receiving a bump from critics.

5. Finally, an issue that becomes apparent after some time, is just a really tiny library of movie content. If the info on the Internet is correct, there are no more than 5-10k movies in the Netflix library, this is nothing compared to how many movies are out there. Whole genres are not represented, where are the hardboiled Hong Kong action, foreign Sci-Fi, classic oldies, etc. It is not a direct problem of Netflix recommendation engine, but a limitation still. Again, if I compare Spotify and Netflix coverage, Spotify fares much better, with no more than 10% of artists that I listed to no listed. Of course, Netflix tries to switch everyone to watching just more of their own content which they can distribute without issues or additional cost worldwide. But if the market becomes fragmented, the movie discovery function diminishes in value.

It used to be better years ago IMHO. Then they reduced your opinion possibilities to up/down and the recommendations seemed to get worse.

Yuck, No ! I hated it.

It never applies to me.

Isn't the problem that they game the recommendations too much? They obviously emphasize NF "Originals" and probably content they are getting on better deals. Regarding point 1, they very often plug watched titles again and again (I'd prefer them just being hidden), I think this is because of their rather crappy catalogue (probably also the reason they show you different posters for the same title). I've never gotten the impression they actually have 5888[0] titles.

[0] https://unogs.com/countrydetail (USA)

The original Netflix recommendation challenge was floated back when Netflix was a "movie by mail" service where if you got a good or bad movie the situation would take days to play out. In that case the difference between 90% and 95% accurate is something the customer can feel, is good for the business, etc.

Back then Netflix was buying retail DVDs so they also had an unlimited catalog: they could start stocking a movie just by buying a few disks.

They negotiated with Hollywood for the rights to run a streaming service which was structured something like "Netflix pays Disney $0.80 a month per subscriber."

At this point the "Netflix optimization problem" is: "buy content that will keep our customers coming back for the minimum amount of money." Netflix withheld data about which movies customers watched from the studios because they didn't want studios to know what they thought the movies were worth.

Then Netflix started to make its own movies because, once the number of subscribers is large, it is cheaper to buy then to rent.

The new optimization problem is still "minimize costs" but now Netflix is involved with the production of movies from the very beginning and will produce movies based on what plays well (or they imagine plays well) with the Netflix audience.

Is it good?

I don't think so. I saw cable channels become fat but disconnected from the consumer because they had a business model where they got paid whether or not you watched. In the "GAME PASS" future you can play any Assassin's Creed game you want for $10 a month -- I'd rather decide which games I buy myself instead of have it be done by some insiders in a smoke-free room.