Power Of The Thumbnail

Journalist Trung Phan, who writes for The Hustle, dropped a great thread about Netflix's thumbnail technology yesterday. Thumbnails are the little images that promote each show when you log in to your Netflix account. They visually suggest what you should watch next.

According to him, a Netflix user will only browse for 90 seconds and leave if they find nothing appealing. So, good thumbnail artwork is actually Netflix's most effective lever to influence a viewer's choice. Their research reveals that we only look at each little picture for less than 2 seconds, so the company spends a huge amount of money and effort to optimise them.

Netflix applies machine learning tools to select a thumbnail image for every show, for you personally, based on your recent watch history. They know what will turn you on. This really is very cool, check out Phan's thread for yourself, here.

Holy cow! No wonder this company's shares are trading at a new all-time high. I feel especially proud of the fact that Vestact started buying Netflix shares for customers exactly one decade ago, when they traded at $10.74 each. They are now at $639.10 per share. That's a big winner! What's more, this stock is still a strong buy today.