James Delahunty
11 Aug 2009 19:38
Netflix has revealed that it will hold a second challenge to improve the movie recommendation systems offered by the service to its customer. The revelation came from chief product officer, Neil Hunt, even before the company has announced the winner of the $1 million prize for the first challenge.
The contest was launched in 2006 by the DVD rental giant, aimed at improving predictions of titles customers might be interested in by 10 percent. Contestants from 186 countries, amounting to 51,000 people, decided to give it a shot. Right now, two teams called BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos and The Ensemble top the leader board with The Ensemble just edging Bellkor's with 10.10 percent compared to 10.09 percent.
The winner will be announced in late September when Netflix will announce the details of the second competition. "While the first contest has been remarkable, we think Netflix Prize 2 will be more challenging, more fun, and even more useful to the field," Hunt wrote.