Revealing the Evolution of Netflix Recommender Systems

Recommender System (RS) has profoundly impacted the business of Netflix from DVD-by-mail to the streaming industry. Netflix has undergone a significant evolution since its inception. The continuous development over the years with an increase in revenue is embarking for many other OTTs and is a study of interest. This development was given a push with the plethora of research in the field of RS which came with the launch of the Netflix Prize in the year 2006. The competition highlighted the importance of RS, provided various dimensions of research, and increased the interest within the research community for the area. In this paper, the overall evolution of Netflix’s recommendation algorithm has been discussed. Further, implemented approaches to date, revenue analysis with changing strategies, and issues in current approaches have been briefly described.