Ever spend what feels like forever browsing through Netflix to find the perfect movie to watch? Chances are, you actually didn't scroll for very long. According to NBC News, the data experts at Netflix have calculated how long its users will spend browsing before they get fed up and quit: just 60 to 90 seconds.

Researchers at the company crunched the numbers because they're trying make Netflix's recommendation system better. After all, they're at risk of having users quit out of frustration, boot up rival apps like Hulu, or (gasp!) even turn on actual live television if they can't find something worth watching. The company's research, published in the journal ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems, showed that a typical user will review 10 to 20 titles, and perhaps three of those in any detail, on one or two screens. If they don't find anything of interest after that, they'll give up.

Those stats highlight just how important the first few rows of recommendations on the home screen are. The paper found that the Trending Now bar has been very successful—that algorithm identifies viewing patterns that happen every year, like watching romantic movies on Valentine's Day or watching a disaster movie if a hurricane is heading to your area. Other successful recommendations include the Continue Watching row, and the Because You Watched row, which compares movies and TV shows to previous titles users have seen.

In total, the researchers say, their recommendation system accounts for 80 percent of the hours watched on Netflix in total. The rest comes from their search function, in which users look for actors, genres, or specific titles in their catalog, although if a user searches for a title not on Netflix, it's up to the recommendation engine again to surface similar titles.

The company is also now factoring in activity from users across 190 countries, so it's clear that a lot of thought goes into all that time you waste while lounging on the couch after work.

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