A Brief History of Netflix Personalization
This essay details Netflix’s progress from its launch in 1998 to the recent launch of its “I feel lucky” button — a merchandising tactic where Netflix members rely totally on Netflix’s personalization algorithms. It’s a messy journey, with an evolving personalization strategy propelled by Netflix’s ability to execute high-cadence experiments using its homegrown A/B test system.
In 20 years, Netflix has gone from members ch oosing 2% of the movies the merchandising system suggests to 80% today. In the early days, a member would explore hundreds of titles before finding something they liked. Today most members look at forty choices before they hit the “play” button. Twenty years from now, Netflix hopes to play that one choice that’s “just right” for you with no browsing or choice required.
Netflix began as a DVD-by-mail startup, following the invention of the DVD player in 1996. In 1998, Netflix launched its website with less than 1,000 DVDs. Here’s what the site looked like its first few years:
