The Netflix Prize

"Winning the Netflix Prize improves our ability to connect people to the movies they love."
The Netflix Prize is extremely indicative of how crucial recommendation systems are to the functioning of businesses relying on e-commerce. The contest invites people to create a system that will improve the likelihood of users loving the movies recommended based on their preferences. Improving Netflix's current system, Cinematch, by 10% will get one dedicated winner $1 million. The desire to improve one of the best recommendation systems in existence absolutely indicative of how much competition is involved in making sure that users have a reason to return to a site. I'm trying to get an interview with someone from Netflix to further discuss its recommendation system, and its continuing improvements.