Netflix doing away with the user reviews feature
Netflix is doing away with users reviews. You can post reviews on the video streaming platform until July 30, and by mid-August, it'll remove all existing written reviews from the website altogether. A company spokesperson said, "We have notified members who have used the feature recently." Once a major feature on Netflix, user reviews were being fairly under-used for the last few years.
Netflix shifting away from crowd-sourced rating systems
Last year, it did away with the five-star rating system, which is commonly used to rate media content across platforms, and brought on board the more straightforward thumbs up/down rating system. This was done to offer users a more personalized recommendation system. Notably, user reviews on Netflix are only available on the desktop.
The thumbs up/down rating system is here to stay
Netflix said, "A thumbs-down lets us know you aren't interested in watching that title and we should stop suggesting it to you. Using thumbs-up helps us learn more about your unique tastes so we can do a better job suggesting stories we think you'll love."
User reviews anyway don't influence Netflix's recommendation algorithm
According to a Netflix spokesperson, user reviews, which allowed users to give feedback on its TV shows and movies, doesn't influence Netflix's recommendation algorithm. Notably, these changes come when Netflix is at its peak. The streaming service recently became the most valuable media company in the world with a total of 125 million subscribers.
