I give a high level overview of how personalization at Netflix helps our members find titles that spark joy, as well as help stories travel across the world.
36. Visually-striking Nature & Ecology Documentaries
But first …
WHERE DO SUCH EXPRESSIVE
ROW HEADERS COME FROM?
Teen Supernatural TV Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Visionary Documentaries about Food
37. From Tags to Containers
Our team of in-house experts meticulously tag each title with a rich taxonomy of 200 different story data points that form the
basis of thematic containers. These containers and their descriptive row headers provide meaning. Each title may end up
belonging to many different containers.
39. HOW TO MAKE A
NETFLIX
HOMEPAGE
1. Decide which
titles should be on
the homepage for
this member
40. HOW TO MAKE A
NETFLIX
HOMEPAGE
2. For each title
decide which of
the possible
containers/row
headers make
most sense to this
member
41. HOW TO MAKE A
NETFLIX
HOMEPAGE
3. Once a row is
formed, decide
how to rank the
titles within the
row
42. HOW TO MAKE A
NETFLIX
HOMEPAGE
4. Decide the order
of the rows so that
the most relevant
titles are placed in
the most
prominent
positions
43. HOW TO MAKE A
NETFLIX
HOMEPAGE
5. Remove
duplicates
44. HOW TO MAKE A
NETFLIX
HOMEPAGE
5. Remove
duplicates
Yes, it is complicated, but our
technology enables the
construction of a unique page for
each and every one of our members!
46. Sudeep!
WHEN YOU GIVE US FEEDBACK,
WE LISTEN
Thumbs signals are fed back into the
personalization algorithm, which then
adjusts your recommendations in a
meaningful way.
47. ● We want our recommendations to be accurate in that they are relevant to the
tastes of our members, but they also need to be diverse so that we can address
the spectrum of a member’s interests versus only focusing on one.
● We want to be able to highlight the depth in the catalog we have in those
interests and also the breadth we have across other areas to help our members
explore and find new interests.
● We want our recommendations to be fresh and responsive to the actions a
member takes, such as watching a show, adding to their list, or thumb up/down
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES
48. 148 Million Members - 190 Countries - 22 Languages
OUR ALGORITHMS ARE GLOBAL AND THEY
HELP GLOBAL STORIES BE HEARD!
49. A row from my homepage that our algorithm
formed possibly based on my interest in
Nordic Noir.
53. “Despite a supposed surge in nationalism across the globe, many people like to watch movies and TV
shows from other countries. “What we’re learning is that people have very diverse and eclectic tastes,
and if you provide them with the world’s stories, they will be really adventurous, and they will find
something unexpected,” Cindy Holland, Netflix’s vice president for original content, told me.”
54. Great stories come from everywhere.
Our technology enables those stories
to be heard.