Netflix Recommendations

I think all the talk in the industry about how good Netflix’s recommendations is exaggerating. I have a Netflix account and barely using it.

I spend a lot of time trying to decide what to watch, and every time I search for something I don’t find it. The German catalog is poor. The recommendations lack necessary elements such as reviews and popularity to help me decide. And I don’t like their strong push for their original content, I am mostly interested in blockbuster stuff and they bury it behind their produced content.

As usual with the way I think, I question their incentive. I think they are incentivized to not have great recommendations. It is like Gym memberships. There is a level of consumption after which you become an expensive member, while others are paying for you by their lack of consumption. And it is the same with their own content vs licensed content, probably theirs is cheaper. But recommendations can’t be very bad or you would churn. So there is a sweet range of consumption below it you drop from the service and above it you make them lose money. And they design their product to keep you in that range.