How does the Netflix algorithm work?

Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in our daily lives. The facial recognition that our mobile phones perform to unlock is a clear example. However, artificial intelligence can get to know us so well that it can recommend, for example, the movies and series that we will like on the most famous streaming platforms such as Netflix. They do this by collecting the data that we generate with the use of said platform and based on profiles similar to ours.
The same thing that Netflix uses can be seen in the rest of streaming platforms, both video and music, such as Spotify. The more you use the system, the more appropriate and accurate the recommendations will be.

What data does the NETFLIX algorithm collect?

In order to make recommendations in each of the platform’s user profiles, Netflix collects different data on user interactions with the platform. The data is, for example, the form of content consumption, devices from which the visualizations are made, among many other things.
Netflix records the searches that are made of all the available content and with this, they know the interests of the user. Even the days of the week in which the platform’s products are most consumed or the hours that are invested in viewing are recorded. Obviously, the data of the content that a profile consumes serves to feed back the recommendation algorithm, which will generate a list of content similar to that of your last interactions.
Netflix also registers the device from which content is viewed and depending on that, it will generate different recommendations for one device or another.For each user profile, a behavior base is generated that allows the algorithm to find similarities between different profiles and make recommendations based on data from similar profiles.
All this information is very valuable for companies such as Netflix since, by making the appropriate recommendations, the chances that we will consume their content for more time increase. This information is also used when producing new content that they can foresee will be successful.
These recommendations are generated by intelligent algorithms that analyze all the data collected about our tastes, preferences and uses of these platforms, this is better known as Big Data.

NETFLIX and Big Data

It is these Big Data algorithms that allow us to analyze the large amounts of data that users generate. Big Data and Machine Learning, more specifically, is a branch of artificial intelligence that allows creating machine learning models from a large amount of data. Among these data, they identify different patterns that allow making predictions.
From Netflix they use Machine Learning to create new prediction models that allow them, for example, to know if a new production is going to be successful or not, and to rely on this data to generate new content. On the other hand, the new data feed back on existing algorithms to improve them by implementing new metrics and evaluation methodologies.Many resources are invested to develop algorithms of different types: neural networks, probabilistic graphical models or reinforcement learning algorithms, among others. All of them allow that, when we sit in front of the television, Netflix offers us the content that interests us with just one click.
As for Netflix, information and data are a great source of wealth in many sectors that increasingly exploit them as they bring great benefits.

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