History and Future of the Netflix API - Mashery Evolution of Distribution

The Netflix API
How Netflix Launched an API and Evolved it to Serve Millions on Hundreds of Devices
By Daniel Jacobson

Who Am I?
Director of Engineering for Netflix API since October 2010
Tenure at NPR from 1999 to 2010
Built the custom CMS in 2002
Extended system for RSS and Podcasting
Launched the NPR API in 2008
Launched NPR redesign in 2009

Netflix Overview
Netflix offers subscriptions to unlimited streaming movies and TV shows for a very low price
About 700 operational employees, 300 engineers
More than 23 million subscribers in US and Canada
Market capitalization is about $12B
Responsible for about 30% of US bandwidth during peak hours (by some accounts)

How Does the API Fit in at Netflix?

Original Charter for the Netflix API
Expose Netflix metadata and services to the public developer community to “let 1,000 flowers bloom”. That community will build rich and exciting new tools and services to improve the value of Netflix to our customers.

Netflix
API
There are currently over
18,000 flowers

Eat Your Own Dog Food

New Target Audiences
Internal Engineering Teams
Netflix product owners
Netflix developers
Partner Relationships
External device manufacturers
Public Developer Community
1,000 flowers

Netflix
API

Some of the many
Netflix-ready
devices

Growth of Netflix API

Netflix API Requests by Audience

New Charter for the Netflix API
Build and maintain an infinitely scalable data distribution pipeline for getting metadata and services from internal Netflix systems to streaming client apps on all platforms in the format and/or delivery method that is most optimal for each app and platform.

API
Personalization Engine
User Info
Movie Metadata
Movie Ratings
Similar Movies
Reviews
A/B Test Engine

What is the future of the API?

Growth of Netflix API

Growth of the Netflix API
About 30 Billion requests per month

<catalog_titles>
<number_of_results>1140</number_of_results>
<start_index>0</start_index>
<results_per_page>10</results_per_page>
<catalog_title>
<id>http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/60021896</id><title short="Star" regular="Star"></title>
<box_art small="http://alien2.netflix.com/us/boxshots/tiny/60021896.jpg"
medium="http://alien2.netflix.com/us/boxshots/small/60021896.jpg"
large="http://alien2.netflix.com/us/boxshots/large/60021896.jpg"></box_art>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/60021896/synopsis"
rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles/synopsis" title="synopsis"></link>
<release_year>2001</release_year>
<category scheme="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/mpaa_ratings" label="NR"></category>
<category scheme="http://api.netflix.com/categories/genres" label="Foreign"></category>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/60021896/cast"
rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/people.cast" title="cast"></link>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/60021896/screen_formats" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles/screen_formats" title="screen formats"></link
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/60021896/languages_and_audio" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles/languages_and_audio" title="languages and audio"></link>
<average_rating>1.9</average_rating>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/60021896/similars" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles.similars" title="similars"></link>
<link href="http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Star/60021896" rel="alternate" title="webpage"></link>
</catalog_title>
<catalog_title>
<id>http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/17985448</id><title short="Lone Star" regular="Lone Star"></title>
<box_art small="http://alien2.netflix.com/us/boxshots/tiny/17985448.jpg" medium="http://alien2.netflix.com/us/boxshots/small/17985448.jpg" large=""></box_art>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/17985448/synopsis" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles/synopsis" title="synopsis"></link>
<release_year>1996</release_year>
<category scheme="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/mpaa_ratings" label="R"></category>
<category scheme="http://api.netflix.com/categories/genres" label="Drama"></category>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/17985448/awards" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles/awards" title="awards"></link>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/17985448/format_availability" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles/format_availability" title="formats"></link>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/17985448/screen_formats" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles/screen_formats" title="screen formats"></link>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/17985448/languages_and_audio" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles/languages_and_audio" title="languages and audio"></link>
<average_rating>3.7</average_rating>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/17985448/previews" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles/previews" title="previews"></link>
<link href="http://api.netflix.com/catalog/titles/movies/17985448/similars" rel="http://schemas.netflix.com/catalog/titles.similars" title="similars"></link>
<link href="http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Lone_Star/17985448" rel="alternate" title="webpage"></link>
</catalog_title>
</catalog_titles>

Improve Efficiency of API Requests
Could it have been 5 billion requests per month?
(Assuming everything else remained the same)

Design for our Key Audiences
Some of the many
Netflix-ready
devices

Future architecture needs to support key audience first with a trickle down of features to the other audiences
Netflix
API

Design for The Audience We Want
If our current
audience is this size
We will designour system for
an audience that is this size

AWS Cloud

Key Lessons from Netflix
Understand target audiences
Think big
Think mobile
Think international
Design API for critical audiences first
Internalize the API as part of your engineering DNA
If building a public API, help them bloom

The Netflix API Team is Hiring!

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History and Future of the Netflix API - Mashery Evolution of Distribution

by Daniel Jacobson

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