NEW YORK — And the winner is . . . Netflix.
Netflix Inc. awarded a $1 million prize Monday to a seven-member international research group as part of a three-year, intensely waged contest to help the online movie rental company predict more accurately what movies its customers will like.
What Netflix gained from the experience is likely worth more than $1 million, and the company’s launch of a second $1 million contest shows it is well aware of that. In fact, when the contest launched in 2006, the first entrants took just three weeks to improve on what Netflix’s internal team had been able to do on its own.
By identifying ways that Netflix could improve its recommendations by at least 10 percent, the winning BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos team is actually letting Netflix make picks that are twice as good as they are now.
That’s important if Netflix wants to retain subscribers. With more than 100,000 films and TV shows available, it’s not enough to simply list them alphabetically or even by genre.
Netflix’s recommendation system is the software version of the store clerk who’s a movie buff, except the computer knows your personal tastes and doesn’t pass judgment if “Runaway Bride” is your top pick.
Netflix does sometimes recommends duds, and incorporating BellKor’s improvements will reduce the chances of that happening while doubling Netflix’s chances of giving you the right pick, the company believes.
