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Netflix Offers $1 Million Prize for Improved Recommendation System

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 2, 2006 - 1:51pm.
Los Gatos, Calif. - Online DVD rental service Netflix on Monday launched a contest that will award $1 million to whomever can make its personalized movie recommendations 10% more accurate. The company offers a library of 65,000 DVD titles to its more than 5 million members, and provides movie recommendations to subscribers based on their past preferences. "Recommendation systems covering a wide variety of categories will play an increasingly significant commercial role in the future," said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. "Right now, we're driving the Model T version of what is possible. We want to build a Ferrari and establishing the Netflix Prize is a first step." The company made available 100 million anonymous movie ratings submitted by its subscribers for use in the contest. If no one is able to achieve a 10% improvement in accuracy over the current Netflix recommendation system this year, the company said it will award $50,000 to whoever comes closest annually until someone wins the grand prize.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061002/sfm014.html?.v=70
http://www.netflixprize.com

tags: Internet | Video | Marketing | Online Publishing | Tech | Movies | Commerce | Netflix | Contests | Retail |



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