Netflix recently released a pretty robust API that allows third party web developers, at the most basic level, to build web applications using Netflix data – movie and TV titles, actors, directors, etc. More advanced applications might include the ability for folks to do things like add movies to their Netflix queue from a third party site.
Despite their status as a big, profitable, (relatively) old company, social media innovation is not a new thing for Netflix. They do a great job at both consumer rating, and recommendations. They also are not afraid to try radical things like offering a million dollars to folks that improve their recommendation engine.
But even with this history of innovation, this is still a big step for Netflix. Their database of movie tittles, actors, movie art, and descriptions is a proprietary asset that took years to accumulate. Historically, these sorts of assets must be protected. Just a few years ago, I would imagine that any company that tried a systematic scrape of this data would be hearing from Netflix’s lawyers.
Now they’re giving it away, opening it up, so that anybody can use it for their own selfish purposes.
Other than Amazon’s AWS, I’ve certainly never seen this sort of structured, commercially valuable data been made available at this scale.
So why did Netflix do this?
I think it’s about putting their data to work for them.
I’ve often written about APIs and widgets being part of the same strategy – freeing up your content to propagate around the web in order to spread your marketing message or your functionality.
The primary difference between widgets and APIs in this use case is that widgets propagate one by one, one consumer at a time.
A properly executed and incentivized API can propagate content in batches of thousands, if not millions. Of course the universe of people able to spread the message is much smaller – developers vs. any web surfer – but the rate of propagation is potentially much, much larger.
My company, RateItAll, is in the process of adding the entire Netflix database of movies, TV shows, actors, and directors to our database. This is part of a larger strategy of trying to ensure that if somebody wants to rate something, we have a listing for it.
The fact that Netflix offers an affiliate program makes it an ever more attractive proposition for us.
For this sort of content and this sort of financial incentive, we are more than happy to expose our hundreds and thousands of visitors to the joys of a Netflix subscription via hundreds of thousands of links back to Netflix.
In this way, Netflix executes its strategy of driving more leads back to home base. We execute our strategy of adding content, and monetizing that content. Everybody wins.
I would encourage those of you with big databases of structured content to follow the lead of innovative companies like Amazon and Netflix and try and figure out ways to put that data to work.
If you have content that is rate-able, make sure you talk to me first.
For more on the mechanics of working with Netflix’s API, check out Joseph Smarr’s post.
