By The Numbers
Continuing my role as Ombudsmen for the New York Times technology section, comes this article today on user reviews:
Mr. Hunt said NetFlix’s recommendation system collected more than two million ratings forms from subscribers daily to add to its huge database of users’ likes and dislikes.
Mr Hunt’s (the firm’s Chief Product Officer) breathless optimism is unfortunately then offset by this:
The company credits the system’s ability to make automated yet accurate recommendations as a major factor in its growth from 600,000 subscribers in 2002 to nearly 4 million today.
To digest the two million-reviews-a-day assertation, or a ‘conservative’ annual run rate of three quarters of a billion reviews a year, you have to believe not only that half of Netflix’s customers log on to their web-site but that each of those people are filling out a review. Every. Single. Day.
A pace only Roger Ebert could keep up with.
Netflix is one of the most impressive examples of user generated content because it draws so heavily on not only self-reported (reviews) but observed data (usage) as well. Why they need to lie to the press, we shall never know.
UPDATE: Sean of organized shopping points out the fact that he mentions ratings not reviews and therefore not apples to apples, which could be conceivable. But still, 50% of your customers rating every single day? It just seems like an enormously engaged audience. I did try to rate as a non-Netflix customer and I couldn’t (or couldn’t see how to do it).
Mr. Hunt’s quote says Ratings, and you are talking about Reviews, apples vs. oranges, I think.
Also, it is not like you are only rating the movies as you go in NetFlix, you can rate a slew of movies seen before/outside NetFlix.
You might not even have to log into the website either, the rating functionality could be available in follow-up emails, not sure.