Personalization & Search

Helping members discover content they'll love

Our goal is to help members discover great content that they will enjoy. Personalization is one of the
pillars of Netflix because it allows each member to have a different view of our content that adapts to
their interests and can help expand their interests over time. It enables us to not have just one Netflix
product but hundreds of millions of products: one for each member profile. Each experience is
personalized across many dimensions: the suggested videos and their ranking, the way videos are
organized into rows and pages, and even the artwork displayed. To do this deep personalization, we
combine a multitude of different algorithmic approaches to address each unique member’s needs.
Personalization starts on the homepage but also extends out across the product and beyond, such as
deciding what messages to send our members to keep them informed and engaged. We want our
members to spend less time looking for something to watch and more time watching something they
truly enjoy: an old favorite to rewatch or a new pick from our growing portfolio of original content.

We also know that sometimes members have something in mind when they visit the service, so we
provide a sophisticated search capability to surface the right videos for our members. This involves
tackling the challenges of handling a multitude of languages and input mechanisms from different
devices including TV remotes and speech controls.

use a multitude of machine learning and recommendation algorithms running at large-scale to drive
our personalization and search experiences. We continuously iterate to improve them through offline
experiments and online A/B testing. We work to push forward the state-of-the-art by improving these
areas and by looking for new opportunities to make a better personalized experience.

Content & Studio

Curating and producing the best content for our members

The task of composing a rich catalog of TV shows and movies that brings joy to all our members
across the globe raises many critical questions. What kinds of titles should we license or produce?
How much should we spend on a title? If we are going to produce a title, where should we film it and
on what schedule? If a shot demands a sea of humanity, should we hire thousands of extras or should
we lean on VFX? In what languages should we dub or subtitle a given title? How do we efficiently find
technical glitches in footage, audio, and text before they make it to the audience? Finally, once we
have a title ready, when should we launch it?

Answers to many of these questions are fundamentally human judgments. At Netflix we use data to
support these decisions. We use a range of techniques that allow us to slice, dice and visualize data to
drive insights as well as to model ambiguous problems into classification, regression and optimization
frameworks.

Streaming

Optimizing your viewing experience

Netflix members stream over 140 million hours of content every day. Millions of devices all over the
globe connect to thousands of Netflix servers to stream content that brings joy to our members.
Delivering online video at this scale while maintaining a high bar for performance is an incredible
technical challenge requiring intelligent real-time algorithms running on Netflix devices and powerful,
flexible internet infrastructure.

The richness of detail and sheer volume of our streaming data grows every day, which we use to
continuously improve the quality and efficiency of our member’s video experience. Our goals are for
every member to view high-quality video on every device, every time, and for our system to scale
efficiently as our global member base grows. We focus on quality of experience, quantified by metrics
like video load time, visual quality and bitrate of delivered video, and rate of video interruptions. Our
research includes models, algorithms, analytics, and experimentation to optimize video delivery on
both the server and client of the video stream to deliver the best possible Netflix experience to
members when they press play.

Marketing & Growth

Helping more people find and enjoy Netflix.

Netflix is passionate about connecting people with stories from around the world. When it comes to
finding and attracting new members, we aim to appeal to people who will truly enjoy and find value
in our dynamic, diverse, and unique content library. Our research in this space revolves around
models that help us explore areas of growth. For example, which geographical markets to prioritize
and what member behaviors help us learn who may or may not benefit from joining Netflix. We
optimize our advertising spend, channel mix, and advertising creative to help find those new
members who will enjoy Netflix. We also optimize how we reach out to our members to maximize
their enjoyment of the service. We do that by designing experiments to understand the space and
designing algorithms to automatically optimize across many facets. Our algorithms leverage a
multitude of machine learning approaches, with a particular emphasis on causal inference
techniques, to understand the causal impact of particular actions on our key business metrics

Netflix, the global streaming titan, isn’t just celebrated for its rich content library; it’s also revered for
a pioneering tech infrastructure that delivers exceptional user experiences to millions worldwide.
Ever wondered what goes on behind that buffering icon? Let’s pull back the curtain on Netflix’s
system design.

From Monolith to Microservices: The Evolution

Netflix’s tech journey began much like any other — with a monolithic architecture. However, as its
user base skyrocketed, it pivoted to a microservices model. Here’s why:

- Scalability: With each service like billing, user management, or recommendations being an
independent unit, they can be scaled separately based on demand. - Rapid Deployment: Changes to
one service don’t affect others. This means faster rollouts and updates.

Delivering Content: The Role of Open Connect

While content is king, delivery is certainly queen. Netflix’s proprietary CDN, Open Connect, is
strategically situated in ISPs across the globe.
- Low Latency: By housing content in regional servers, Netflix ensures lightning-fast content delivery.
- Smart Content Routing: Open Connect doesn’t just store content; it decides the optimal location
from which to serve a particular user.

Data: The Heartbeat of Netflix

Netflix’s recommendation engine, a standout feature, is a product of relentless data processing.

- Storage: While Cassandra, a NoSQL database, handles user data and movie metadata, MySQL looks
after billing and account intricacies. - Real-time Data Streams: With Kafka, user activities are tracked
in real time, feeding the recommendation engine.

- Big Data Analytics: Tools such as Spark and Hive dissect viewing patterns, powering a more
personalized viewer experience.

Ensuring You Stay Glued: The Art of Personalization

Every film or series recommendation you see is the result of intricate algorithms and analytics.

- Tailored Suggestions: Machine learning models analyze your preferences. If you’ve binged three
rom-coms in a row, be ready for a fourth recommendation! - Instant Feedback Loop: As you stream,
real-time data adjusts recommendations, keeping them fresh and relevant.

Built for the Unexpected: Resilience and Security

Netflix’s resilience strategy is quite unique. They intentionally introduce failures!

- Enter Chaos Monkey: Part of a toolkit called the Simian Army, it sporadically kills instances to ensure
Netflix can recover gracefully from failures. - Unwavering Security: With piracy being a persistent
menace, Netflix uses robust encryption techniques to guard its content.

User-Centric Design: Seamless Across Devices

From smart TVs to smartphones, Netflix’s interface adapts gracefully.

- API Gateway (Zuul): It ensures your requests, whether it’s a content search or account change,
reach the right microservice. - Ever-evolving UI: Through continuous A/B testing, Netflix refines its
UI to be intuitive and user-friendly.

System Design: Netflix — A Comprehensive Architectural Overview

Netflix’s success isn’t just about a vast content library but also its sophisticated tech stack that
ensures seamless delivery to millions of users worldwide. Let’s dive deep into the system design of
Netflix.

1. Microservices Architecture:

Netflix transitioned from a monolithic architecture to a microservices model to achieve scalability and
faster innovation.

- Microservices: Each functionality, like billing, recommendations, and user management, is a

separate service. These services are independently deployable and scalable.
Netflix's technology deployment allows for continuous build and integration of its services, which are
found in more than 50 countries. Much of the company's success can be attributed to the open-
source environment that it has created for its products and services.

Netflix created the conducive context and ecosystem for open innovation through its robust
organizational culture of "freedom and responsibility". Evolved over ten years, freedom and
responsibility are seen as a gateway to creativity.

In 2006 Netflix launched an open innovation challenge to the public called Netflix Prize. This aimed to
find a filtering algorithm that improved user movie and series suggestions by 10% compared with its
platform at the time. Although faced with some legal issues surrounding user privacy, the challenge
successfully met its original objective. A total of 40,000 teams from 186 countries entered the
competition and, in less than three years, two solutions were proposed.