Netflix to Replace Five-Star Content Rating System with Thumbs Up or Down

Netflix plans to ditch its star ratings in favor of a thumbs up or down after streaming content on the platform.

The five-star system allows users to rate how much they enjoyed content so Netflix can more accurately recommend shows they may like in the future. But Todd Yellin, Netflix’s vice president of product, said his company experimented with thumbs up and down last year and found through A/B testing that users were 200% more likely to click a thumbs up or down than offer a five star rating.

It has pros and cons: yes, users may be more likely to give a rating, but that rating will give Netflix less insight into exactly what kind of content users like, and precisely how much they like it. However, Netflix argues that these days, it has so much data on user behavior that the rating system is far less important than it was years ago.

The change is expected to roll out next month.

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