Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is continuing to look for more ways to be competitive and its latest product, multiple user profiles on a single subscription, is being tested.
In an article by Digital Spy, Netflix’s Todd Yellin, vice president of product innovation, spoke about the company’s latest project with the publication. He said the efforts come as the company tries to acknowledge its 33 million members (including the UK’s one million) as individuals.
What this means is, Yellin and San Francisco-based team, are trying to give individual homepages derived from a subscriber’s personal tastes and interests. Interested in a dark dramas? That’s what will show up on your homepage. But if you prefer something such as Spongebob SquarePants, then you may not know it is offered by Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX).
To achieve more individuality, the team is currently testing multi-user profiles from single subscriptions, which has been desired by Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) households for some time.
Yellin said to DigitalSpy, “What we have heard for a long time, from a product side, is that, ‘sure, you are personalizing what I want, but it is actually what my household wants. You are treating us like one being’.”
“We have been aware of that for a long time, but the problem is that if you want to make something frictionless and brain dead, but also give more features, there has to be a balance and you don’t want feature creep and complexity.”
For now only a small portion of Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) users are testing the new feature–less than 1 percent of its global subscribers. The testing started in December and will run through mid-March.
To participate, the group has a drop-down bar in the top right-hand corner of the screen that exhibits an individual’s top tens and recommendations for numerous people.
With positive feedback by the participants, the team may globally launch the product at year’s end; this will include a small U.K. percentage.
Yellin said of the current results, “Early data is looking positive but we are not sure yet. [But] if it works, then we are going to productise it, which means we are going to roll it out in a scalable way that works with our over 33m members globally.”
“If everything goes to plan and this test comes out in the green, as we call it, then you’ll see this in the UK and globally by the end of the year.
“I am not sure if it will work. Why wouldn’t it work? Because it adds more complexity, but it also adds value. And it’s about weighing up the equation.”
