Amazon.com has a great recommendation engine. You purchase or look at product X and it suggests that you might like products Y and Z.
Same thing with Netflix. If you rate a movie 3 stars, you’re presented with a list of movies that you might enjoy.
Same with YouTube. At the end of every video, YouTube shows you a list of similar videos.
There are a lot of companies that recommend solutions based on relationships. These can be e-commerce solutions or these can be media solutions. However, none of these recommendations are available outside a specific environment.
If you watch a TV show on Netflix, the service tells you of other shows you might like on Netflix. However, what if Netflix also recommended shows and content outside their service? That would be immensely beneficial to consumers and content marketers.
Anyone who has worked in media or entertainment knows that making people aware of the show is half the battle. The other half is making them watch the show.
Companies have finessed and tweaked their recommendation engines on a continuous basis. Relevance continues to be the most important factor and asset for web properties. Google has been doing this for years. It tweaks search results based on relevance. The higher the relevance, the greater the likelihood of a user re-using Google. On the other hand, Facebook also tries to engage users by looking at common connections and recommending friends.
A global content recommendation engine for video would add a tremendous value to everyone involved. Example scenario:
- A user goes to Hulu and watches The Office.
- At the end of the episode, Hulu might suggest that if they like The Office, they may also like the UK version.
- Here, Hulu can either recommend Amazon.com for the DVDs or it can link people to Netflix, where it’s available as a free stream (with subscription).
- Not only does Hulu earn commission/affiliate fees, Amazon and Netflix also reduce their marketing expenditure.
If you’re aware of a company who’s developing this solution, please let us know.
