This week my post focuses on the “How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood” article. Thinking about the n-dimensional classification scheme while reading this article was interesting. The classification Netflix uses isn’t n-dimensional because the genre title can only include so many characters. But it’s not even fourth or fifth or however many identifiers can be put in the genre title. From my understanding, each classifying tag is independent from the next. If you wanted to categorize “Night of the Living Dead” it would be Zombie movie from the 1960’s, but neither “zombie movie” or “from the 1960’s” will be a branch under the other identifier. The Netflix classification scheme is almost an ultra-specific 1-dimensional classification scheme. I looked to the Netflix terms of use to see if their algorithm is mentioned at all. It’s not, but there is a clause that states you may not “engineer or disassemble any software or other products or processes accessible through the Netflix service” which would include their genre system.
However their terms do state that they are constantly updating all facets of their service, which would include their genre list. Based on what people are watching and the growing or dying popularity of a movie or TV show can effect what genres are being included. This can also be applied in the opposite fashion. In the case of House of Cards, Netflix chose to create a Machiavellian political thriller because that was a popular genre. Another clause states that “The availability of movies & TV shows to watch will change from time to time, and from country to country.” The country of origin or setting genre tag is useful to Netflix because they can see if Danish movie are popular in America and therefore should provide American customers with more Danish movies or if they are more popular in Japan and then provide Japanese customers with more Danish movie genres.
It is for this reason that the super specific genre system that Netflix uses not only benefits the viewer but also benefits Netflix itself. If somebody rates romantic comedies 5 stars and coming-of-age movies 4 stars, they will get recommended romantic coming-of-age comedies. From Netflix’s perspective, they gained data that tells them that people who watch romantic comedies also like to watch coming-of-age movies. This data let’s Netflix know the best way to group their movies and TV shows, and what type of movies they should spend money to get licensing for.
“Netflix Terms of Use.” Netflix. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. .