Netflix rolls out new titles all month long, so you would think you wouldn't run out of things to watch on the platform. Like the rest of us, you've all experienced times when you feel like you watched just about everything that's new, as well as titles that look good, and resort to browsing through the many different categories on your home page.
And even though this happens every so often, you probably get bored and give up searching because it's taking too long, and if you don't start streaming soon you will never wake up for work the next morning.
But exactly how long does it take for Netflix subscribers to stop browsing and either pick any title or leave the platform?
According to Netflix researchers, just 60 to 90 seconds.
In just two minutes, Netflix subscribers can no longer stand to search anymore, which means they could potentially log out of the platform and look for something else on network TV, or worse, another streaming service.
Published in the journal ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems, Netflix's researchers found that the average subscriber only browses through 10 to 20 titles on a few rows of the recommendations provided on their home page.
"The user either finds something of interest [within the first 60 or 90 seconds] or the risk of the user abandoning our service increases substantially," Netflix's CPO Neil Hunt and VP of product innovation Carlos Gomez-Uribe wrote in the paper.
Besides the fact that this further proves we have short attention spans, Netflix gathered this data so that it can make improvements to better its personalized recommendation system, especially after its launch in 130 additional countries in January.
The streaming service's recommendations are "central to the Netflix experience," providing a way users can easily and quickly find titles they will enjoy based on their previous history.
Previously, the company made these recommendations based on what other members with similar preferences stream within the user's geographical location. But now the company is widening its lens by creating a system that uses its global data to make recommendations.
"After an entire year, efforts from dozens of teams across the company, and intensive research, we developed and deployed a global recommendation system that will benefit Netflix members across the world," Gomez-Uribe wrote in a blog post last week.
By looking at its global data to see commonalities in preferences no matter where people live, the company said that it has been able to make its recommendations system even better. For example, Netflix was able to identify a community of members in Japan and outside of Japan that are into the same type of anime, and can now recommend these titles to those with similar tastes.
Recommendations are crucial to keeping Netflix subscribers on the platform for more than 2 minutes before giving up on looking for something to watch.
Source: NBC News
