Success Story:

The Data Science

Behind Netflix

Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business Innovation 1
Netflix in numbers
• Last year, Netflix announced that it signed on
135 million accounts woldwide.
• Netflix’s US user demographics perfectly
represents the overall US population in terms
of wealth, education, and age.

Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business Innovation 2
Netflix‘s business model
• With no ads, NeKlix’s business model
relies on customers who subscribe to
their service for the long run. The
happier the customers are, the longer
they will stay subscribed to the service.

• This is why, it is central to NeKlix

business to idenHfy and analyse factors
that impact viewers’ enjoyment.

Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business InnovaHon 3
Factors impacting viewers’ enjoyment
• Since the early days, Netflix captures viewers’ enjoyment through
ratings given to movies
• As streaming video became the primary focus, many more data
points became available, giving insights into the customers
• These included...
• Time of day something was watched
• User gender and age (based on individual logins)
• Time spent selecting movies
• How often a movie or program was paused

Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business Innovation 4
… Netflix predicts "perfect situation"
• Using these data points, NeKlix developers built models to predict
the “perfect situaHon” in which customers conHnuously receive
programs they enjoy.

• To do so, it assigns users to three to five clusters among more than

1,300 clusters, based on their viewing preferences.

Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business InnovaHon 5
data-driven categorisations of movies
• Using Data Science techniques, Netflix service has created 76,897
unique ways to describe types of movies.
• These are called “alt-genres,” which is what leads to Netflix’s scarily
specific category suggestions (e.g., ”TV Programs Featuring a Strong
Female Lead”).
TV Programs Featuring a Strong Female Lead

• Clearly they go far beyond the classical categories like drama, comedy,
or science fiction.
Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business Innovation 6
Cover Image PersonalizaHon

Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business Innovation 7
Cover Image Personalization (cont.)
• NeKlix models the show’s cover image on the colours and styles for
successful, similarly tagged programs, to help draw new viewers in

Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business InnovaHon 8
Conclusion
• Netflix disrupted the TV industry using data science to provide
viewers with exactly the content they want.
• Similar business exist that do the same in many different fields:

• They are all "data companies".

Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business Innovation 9
Credits
• The Big Data Behind NeKlix’s “House of Cards”. Hewlec Packard
Enterprise Development
• hcps://www.hpemacer.com/issue-no-8-winter-2016/big-data-behind-
neKlixs-house-cards
• Artwork PersonalizaHon at NeKlix. NeKlix TechBlog
• hcps://medium.com/neKlix-techblog/artwork-personalizaHon-c589f074ad76
• NeKlixGraph Metadata Library: An OpHmizaHon Case Study. NeKlix
TechBlog
• hcps://medium.com/neKlix-techblog/neKlixgraph-metadata-library-an-
opHmizaHon-case-study-6cc7d5eb2946

Marco Brambilla, Emanuele Della Valle - Data Science for Business InnovaHon 10