In story #36, we see the role of math in a (now famous) streaming company!

In the good old days, do you remember paying a late fee for a movie that you rented from a store? Movies were rented from a store and were due back at a specific date and time.

One person cofounded a company that revolutionized the video industry and eliminated late fees. 

Okay, so what is the role of math here?

The idea behind the company came from a graduate school #math problem related to #bandwidth: What’s the carrying capacity and cost of a station wagon carrying tapes across the US? 

The answer to the problem demonstrated that, at the time, videos could be supplied by mail for a low price, without the need to go to a store and without incurring late penalties (as long as you didn't have too many movies out at once). 

Almost all videos are now streamed, and the firm that started it has millions of users. That firm is today known as #Netflix.

Well, math can very well create amazing companies!

Not just that, the company's recommendations for users, which are based on its collection of ratings, are an important aspect of its business strategy. 

However, because only around 1% of views were evaluated, movie recommendations are made using algorithms including statistics, graph theory, and trigonometry (which, for example, gives a measure of how similar or dissimilar movies are). 

The importance of the suggestions is such that Netflix had given a million-dollar prize for an algorithm that can improve the company's recommendation system by at least 10%. 

After about three years, a winner finally emerged (in 2009), complete with a Hollywood ending: two teams’ algorithms had essentially the same performance--10.06% improvement--but the winning team had submitted its entry just 20 minutes earlier!

Sources:

<1> Revolutionizing an industry - Article by American Mathematical Society.

<2> LINEAR ALGEBRA AND NETFLIX by Krešo Josić - Engines of our ingenuity.

<3> This Psychologist Might Outsmart the Math Brains Competing for the Netflix Prize by Wired.

 #streaming #recommendations #movies #math #mathstories #story36