How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix? • Hacker News Board

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#11

Post by squarecog » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:15 AM UTC

alberth wrote: post #2

What’s odd is that the person responding in Quora who’s speaking as if he has authority on this matter started at Netflix in 2011, 2 years after the contest ended. The contest started in 2006 and was awarded in 2009. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize

Why is this odd?

If he started two years later and there was not a trace of the Prize work at the company, that would be an indicator that the competition was not important. If he started and could still see knock-on effects from the competition, that's an indicator that it was important.

Plus, he didn't just start at Netflix. He "took over the small team that was working and maintaining the rating prediction algorithm that included the first year Progress Prize solution."

Yeah, that sounds like he has some authority on the matter.

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#12

Post by DantesKite » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:16 AM UTC

It was useful, just not in the way it was intended.

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#13

Post by prepend » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:19 AM UTC

plasma wrote: post #4

I’d enjoy seeing a more creative approach to recommendations for something as big as Netflix. A few suggestions: 1. Review channels by genre 2. Trailer TV - let me leave a “comedy” trailer channel running that shows the trailer and movie rating and details at the bottom, let me easily skip to the next trailer (or let it play out)

I think Netflix doesn’t have enough content to do this. They have their own originals and just a thin layer of other stuff.

So I think any truly personalized content channel would get exhausted quickly.

What I’d like to have is just a channel of curated or semi curated movie content that I can leave running or forward through to watch.

I recently stayed in a hotel with 6 channels of hbo. It’s kind of refreshing to have “hbo comedy” with random stuff like Beverly Hills cop and billy Madison on at 2pm in the afternoon.

Netflix doesn’t have enough content to do this, so they keep recommending the same crap originals to me over and over, knowing that I don’t watch them.

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#14

Post by mmahemoff » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:24 AM UTC

TLDR: Very useful. It's true they didn't use the winning algorithm, because it was only a small improvement and they were already moving to streaming, where predicting consumption matters more than predicting ratings. However, they did put an earlier submission into production. Moreover, the competition was a powerful recruiting tool.

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#15

Post by Elidrake24 » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:26 AM UTC

prepend wrote: post #13

plasma wrote: post #4

I’d enjoy seeing a more creative approach to recommendations for something as big as Netflix. A few suggestions: 1. Review channels by genre 2. Trailer TV - let me leave a “comedy” trailer channel running that shows the trailer and movie rating and details at the bottom, let me easily skip to the next trailer (or let it play out)

I think Netflix doesn’t have enough content to do this. They have their own originals and just a thin layer of other stuff. So I think any truly personalized content channel would get exhausted quickly. What I’d like to have is just a channel of curated or semi curated movie content that I can leave running or forward through to watch. I recently stayed in a hotel with 6 channels of hbo. It’s kind of refreshing to ha…

…Huh? Netflix has more originals at this point then HBO has across their entire library. That’s ignoring the licensed content Netflix also pays for.

I can appreciate that you may not like said content, but they certainly aren’t lacking.

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#16

Post by CoolGuySteve » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:28 AM UTC

plasma wrote: post #4

I’d enjoy seeing a more creative approach to recommendations for something as big as Netflix. A few suggestions: 1. Review channels by genre 2. Trailer TV - let me leave a “comedy” trailer channel running that shows the trailer and movie rating and details at the bottom, let me easily skip to the next trailer (or let it play out)

I'd just like to tell Netflix I want to go to bed in 40 minutes so play something about that long.

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#17

Post by alberth » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:33 AM UTC

nextaccountic wrote: post #8

alberth wrote: post #2

What’s odd is that the person responding in Quora who’s speaking as if he has authority on this matter started at Netflix in 2011, 2 years after the contest ended. The contest started in 2006 and was awarded in 2009. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize

He worked 10 years there, and was former research director, so.. maybe he knows a bit or two about this prize? He did work on productionize the 2007 winner, after all.

His LinkedIn profile says otherwise. 2011-2017 was his time at Netflix.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/xamatriain

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#18

Post by dimitrios1 » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:35 AM UTC

alberth wrote: post #17

nextaccountic wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He worked 10 years there, and was former research director, so.. maybe he knows a bit or two about this prize? He did work on productionize the 2007 winner, after all.

His LinkedIn profile says otherwise. 2011-2017 was his time at Netflix. https://www.linkedin.com/in/xamatriain

Everyone knows you can't lie on your LinkedIn profile, too.

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#19

Post by godelski » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:37 AM UTC

mmahemoff wrote: post #9

alberth wrote: post #2

What’s odd is that the person responding in Quora who’s speaking as if he has authority on this matter started at Netflix in 2011, 2 years after the contest ended. The contest started in 2006 and was awarded in 2009. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize

"Research/Engineering Director at Netflix (2011-2014)" would probably know a thing or two about how useful the contest was. (He also might have worked there before that time in a different role.)

Not far in he writes

> Ten years ago, when I was leading Algorithms at Netflix

So... I think he does know a thing or two about specifically this issue.

Re: How useful was the Netflix Prize challenge for Netflix?

#20

Post by BB212 » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 1:38 AM UTC

I think the discussion misses the most important part:

The goal of the Netflix prize wasn't to come up with the best algorithm - it was to make the Netflix brand exciting and legitimate to engineers. At the time, Netflix wasn't super high-tech and I'm sure it was hard for them to get the top talent they needed. It seems silly in retrospect now, but I'm certain the reason this was approved was because they wanted the free advertising this would provide within graduate classes and academia in general.