How Netflix’s Algorithms and Tech Feed Its Success
After decades of pitching Netflix as a technology company that happened to distribute entertainment, executives there have lately attempted to restyle their streaming behemoth as an entertainment company that happens to rely on technology. But don’t be fooled: The proprietary technology that Netflix uses to gather and analyze data remains key to the company’s success.
That data is, in turn, used to inform decisions about what shows and movies to produce, whether to renew them, and whether to share them with any given viewer through the company’s famous recommendation algorithms. That’s true whether the content is new and original—such as “The Queen’s Gambit," “Squid Game" and “Money Heist"—or it’s part of an existing franchise, like “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story," the “Gilmore Girls" revival or subsequent seasons of hits like “Stranger Things." Netflix already shares some of this data privately, with those who make its content, and in the form of public weekly top-10 lists, says a Netflix spokeswoman.
Depending on how the simultaneous strikes by Hollywood writers and actors go, the company, and its many imitators, may have to share more. That’s because, in the age of streaming, answering the question of how actors and writers should be compensated depends on this data, and how the company uses it to calculate whether a show was a good investment.
When residuals come up in the context of a contract negotiation, such as the one at the heart of the current Hollywood strikes, what’s really at stake is data, and who possesses it, says Michael Wayne, an assistant professor of media and creative industries at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. The Writers Guild of America and SAG-Aftra, the actors’ union, didn’t respond to
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