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A DVD–by–mall startup is born
Netflix began as a DVD-by-mail startup following the invention of the DVD player in 1996. In 1998, Netflix launched its website with less than 1,000 DVDs -
Cinematch
Netflix introduced a personalized movie recommendation system, using member ratings to predict how much a member would like a movie. The algorithm was called Cinematch, and it’s a collaborative filtering algorithm. -
How the personal algorthms work
Netflix creates a forced rank list of movies for each user — from the content most likely to please to the least. Then this list is filtered according to attributes of the movies, TV shows, and the member’s tastes. For instance, a filter teases out a sub-list of movies and presents it in a row called “quirky dramas with strong female heroines” or “witty, irreverent TV shows.” -
From Stars to Thumbs
Discovering which method inspires members to provide more taste data is simple: execute an A/B test of the five-star system against a thumbs up/down system. The result: The simpler thumbs system collected twice as many ratings.