Developers to get $1m payout for Netflix tool

The winning entry will be free for use by other business sectors

Media rental and streaming service Netflix is launching a competition in which developers could win a $1m prize.

The company said on Monday that it would be offering the prize as part of a new challenge to improve search and recommendation services. Developers are being invited to work with the site's recommendation engine to improve its ability to recommend movies to new users.

Developers will be asked to design tools that can recommend titles without referencing an extensive list of previous user ratings. The company hopes that the tool can better recommend films for new users and those who have not amassed large numbers of ratings.

"Accurately predicting the movies Netflix members will love is a key component of our service," said Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt.

"This extreme level of personalisation is like entering a video store with 100,000 titles and having those that are most interesting to you fly off the shelves and line up in front of you."

The new contest comes after the company announced the winner of its first developer contest. A seven-member group of engineers and developers claimed the prize for developing a tool to improve recommendations for users with more than 50 reviews.

The hosting of development contests has been used by several different sectors in the technology world to improve products. Companies such as Sun and O2 have also used developer contests to spark interest in their platforms and products.

Netflix said that it will be making the winning entry free for use by those in other business sectors as well.