Introducing Netflix Social
Movies and TV shows are better with friends. — We get suggestions from our friends for new things to watch and we connect with our friends through the shared enjoyment of a great movie or TV show. — Starting today, Netflix members in the U.S. can share …
Context & Ripple Effects
Netflix had been building toward Facebook-linked sharing since its 2009 Facebook Connect ratings integration and described extensive Facebook integration as under way in 2011. Its late-2012 plan to let U.S. members share viewing activity once legislation cleared framed this launch as the release of a delayed feature rather than a new strategic direction.
The social layer also extends Netflix’s earlier personalization work: friend activity supplies a human recommendation signal alongside the company’s data-driven programming and discovery efforts.
First-order effects
- U.S. Netflix members gain a way to share viewing activity and recommendations with Facebook friends, making titles visible beyond Netflix’s own browsing interface.
- Facebook becomes a distribution surface for Netflix viewing recommendations, while Netflix gets a new path for member-led title discovery.
Second-order effects
- Netflix’s original-programming push gains an additional word-of-mouth channel: socially visible viewing can amplify titles that members choose to recommend.
- Netflix’s recommendation experience must reconcile friend-led suggestions with its existing personalization features, increasing the value of discovery rather than catalog size alone.
Third-order effects
- If members adopt sharing, streaming services will compete not only on libraries and algorithms but also on whether viewing activity can travel through users’ social networks.
The trend: Online video discovery is moving toward a hybrid of algorithmic personalization and socially distributed recommendations.