5 ms·

> What is ebay thinking? Impressive back-end tech (the recommendation engine) that can now process millions and millions of items on eBay to help increase sale

by hassy 15y ago

> What is ebay thinking? Impressive back-end tech (the recommendation engine) that can now process millions and millions of items on eBay to help increase sales (something like a quarter of Amazon's sales come from recommendations).

suking 15y ago
Very hard to imagine ebay doesn't already do a good job of this with their years of experience. I mean it's possible, but I doubt it.
smokinn 15y ago
80 million dollars is a lot to pay for a recommendation engine. Netflix had their own and paid a million dollars as prize payout for an absolutely state of the art system. If it really was just a tech acquisition they massively overpaid.
- hassy 15y ago
  Don't forget that Hunch's system is real-time (this is very hard), and is more than just scalable collaborative filtering for items of the same kind. They can ingest a Twitter or Facebook profile, infer your "taste profile", and start recommending things instantly; "things" meaning books, films, music, events, places etc etc.
  - suking 15y ago
    I don't believe real time is very hard. Something that ebay can' already do. And if they can't already do it, how will hunch come in and solve it. It would probably require major changes to db's etc if that is why ebay can't already do it.
    - hassy 15y ago
      > I don't believe real time is very hard. At scale it is. More here: http://www.quora.com/Hunch/Is-Hunch-actually-doing-anything-technically-interesting/answer/Hasan-Veldstra http://www.quora.com/Hunch/Is-Hunch-actually-doing-anything-... (this one got a vote from one of the founders) http://hassy.posterous.com/my-favorite-startups-hunch http://hassy.posterous.com/my-favorite-startups-hunch
  - flinty 15y ago
    How does that vary much from what Etsy did with their gift recommendations application based on your/friend's facebook profile
- achompas 15y ago
  See my above reply to suking--$80m is kind of a bargain.
- mikeklaas 15y ago
  As someone who builds recommender systems for a living, let me assure you that the output of the netflix prize was perhaps 10% of what you need to actually build a good recommendations product.
  - smokinn 15y ago
    Sure, I wasn't implying eBay overpaid by 80x but 79 million dollars is a lot of product development once you've paid 1 million for a proven state of the art proof of concept. Obviously eBay must see other reasons for the acquisition than just the tech itself. Also, if it's also in large part a talent acquisition then they're going to paying more than 80 million since they're going to need to pay for some new pairs of golden handcuffs to keep the talent around.

by hassy 15y ago

suking 15y ago

Very hard to imagine ebay doesn't already do a good job of this with their years of experience. I mean it's possible, but I doubt it.

smokinn 15y ago

80 million dollars is a lot to pay for a recommendation engine. Netflix had their own and paid a million dollars as prize payout for an absolutely state of the art system. If it really was just a tech acquisition they massively overpaid.

hassy 15y ago
Don't forget that Hunch's system is real-time (this is very hard), and is more than just scalable collaborative filtering for items of the same kind. They can ingest a Twitter or Facebook profile, infer your "taste profile", and start recommending things instantly; "things" meaning books, films, music, events, places etc etc.
- suking 15y ago
  I don't believe real time is very hard. Something that ebay can' already do. And if they can't already do it, how will hunch come in and solve it. It would probably require major changes to db's etc if that is why ebay can't already do it.
  - hassy 15y ago
    > I don't believe real time is very hard. At scale it is. More here: http://www.quora.com/Hunch/Is-Hunch-actually-doing-anything-technically-interesting/answer/Hasan-Veldstra http://www.quora.com/Hunch/Is-Hunch-actually-doing-anything-... (this one got a vote from one of the founders) http://hassy.posterous.com/my-favorite-startups-hunch http://hassy.posterous.com/my-favorite-startups-hunch
- flinty 15y ago
  How does that vary much from what Etsy did with their gift recommendations application based on your/friend's facebook profile
achompas 15y ago
See my above reply to suking--$80m is kind of a bargain.
mikeklaas 15y ago
As someone who builds recommender systems for a living, let me assure you that the output of the netflix prize was perhaps 10% of what you need to actually build a good recommendations product.
- smokinn 15y ago
  Sure, I wasn't implying eBay overpaid by 80x but 79 million dollars is a lot of product development once you've paid 1 million for a proven state of the art proof of concept. Obviously eBay must see other reasons for the acquisition than just the tech itself. Also, if it's also in large part a talent acquisition then they're going to paying more than 80 million since they're going to need to pay for some new pairs of golden handcuffs to keep the talent around.