Data Analysis of Netflix Streaming Platform
By Azeez Ramon
Table of Contents
Introduction
Data Analysis Tools
Research Questions
RQ 1: Is Netflix truly a global streaming platform?
RQ 2: Is Netflix all inclusive?
RQ 3: Is Netflix promoting itself as a film or television show platform?
RQ 4: Which countries are the most popular on Netflix?
RQ 5: Does Netflix have global casts?
Learning outcome, Challenges, and Opportunities
Conclusion
References
Introduction
Data is information that has been transformed into binary digital form for use with modern computers and communication mediums. The topic of data may be used in either the singular or the plural. Gone are those days when data is limited to some certain set of people or where the majority of people do not have access to data at all as data is now exploded, that is, it is now available to everyone in this era. A significant portion of this data explosion is the consequence of a sharp rise in peripheral devices, such as embedded sensors, smart phones, and tablet computers. Collecting all of this data opens up new possibilities for “extracting more value” in a variety of fields, including human genomics, healthcare, oil and gas, search, surveillance, and ,finance. Richard L., Carl W. & Matthew E (2011).
Importance of data
The importance of data cannot be overemphasized particularly in contemporary society as all aspects of human endeavor rely or have something to do with data. This is because data is useful information that you collect to support organizational decision-making and strategy. In my view and level of understanding, data is crucial or important in contemporary society because of the following reasons.
Firstly, organizations can assist individuals they support live better lives by using data. Organisations should use data for a variety of reasons, but improving quality should be their top priority. An efficient data system can help an organization enhance the quality of people’s lives by enabling measurement and action.
Secondly, data = knowledge, according to The Council on Quality and Leadership. According to them, solid data gives incontrovertible evidence, whereas anecdotal evidence, assumptions, or abstract observation may result in lost resources as a result of acting on an incorrect conclusion..
Thirdly, data is important because it allows organizations to achieve their goals. Data assists organizations in determining the success of a specific strategy: After implementing techniques to address a problem, obtaining data will assist you in determining how successfully your approach is functioning and whether it needs to be adjusted or changed over time.
Another use of data is that it allows organisations to back up their claims. Data is vital for advocating for systems. Making a compelling argument for system reform will be easier with the use of data. Using statistics to support your argument will help you illustrate why changes are essential, whether you are arguing for extra funding from public or private sources or making the case for regulatory changes.
Limitations of data
However, despite all the importance of data stated above, it also has its limitations, some of which were discussed by Palak Kumar in an article titled “Advantages and Limitations of Data Analytics. According to Palak Kumar, limitations of data analytics include;
Privacy concern: Customers’ privacy may be breached on occasion by data collection because organizations whose services they use have access to information about their purchases, online transactions, and subscriptions. Certain businesses may trade datasets with other businesses for mutual benefit. Certain obtained data could potentially be used to attack an individual, a nation, or a community. Businesses must exercise caution when collecting customer data and ensure the privacy and security of that data. Only the information required for the analysis should be gathered, and any sensitive data should be anonymized to ensure its security. Customers’ loss of trust in enterprises as a result of data breaches could have a negative impact on the organization.
Low quality of data: One of the most major disadvantages of data analytics is the scarcity of high-quality data. Companies may already have a lot of data, but the question is whether they have the right data. A top-down strategy is required, in which the business issues that must be addressed are identified first, followed by the data required to answer these questions. In other cases, data gathered for historical purposes may be insufficient to answer the problems we have now. Even when we have the necessary parameters to collect data, the quality of the data collection can be poor.
Netflix
Because the purpose of this research is to analyse data from the Netflix streaming platform, it is necessary to briefly describe Netflix at this point. Netflix is a media corporation headquartered in Los Gatos, California. It was created in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, and it operates the Netflix brand, which comprises original films and television programmes commissioned or bought by the company, as well as third-party content licenced from other distributors. Netflix later joined the Motion Picture Association, becoming the first streaming company to do so.
Data Analysis tools
Google Sheets: Google Sheet will be my data analysis tool for my study work. Google Sheets is an online spreadsheet programme that allows you to create and format spreadsheets as well as collaborate with others. It lets many people to work on the same document at the same time. It can be used to construct many sorts of charts, as well as do computations. The amount of data it can manage without skewing is, however, restricted. I chose Google Sheets because it is an all-in-one data analysis tool, the functions are simple to use, and it performed admirably for the data collection I needed to investigate.
Supermetrics: Supermetrics is a Google Sheets add-on that automates processes and analysis on Google Sheets. This makes data analysis on Google Sheets easier and smoother.
Google Sheets Explore: The Google Sheets Explore function generates charts to provide insight and analysis on data for Google Sheets users with minimal expertise or confidence in using charts, or just to save you time creating your own.
How I install Supermetrics
To install Supermetrics, I clicked on the extensions tab at the top of my Google Sheets, then add –on, get add-ons. After clicking get add-ons, I window will pop up, then I typed Supermetrics in the search bar. Then clicked on Supermetrics to take me to the install page, then I clicked Install to install the add-on (Supermetrics).
Research Questions
In order to explain my work better, I decided to set the following research questions for this work:
1. Is Netflix truly a global streaming platform?
2. Is Netflix all inclusive?Is Netflix promoting itself as a film or television show platform?
3. Which countries are the most popular on Netflix?
4. Does Netflix have a global cast?
5. Does Netflix have a global cast?
Research Question 1: Is Netflix truly a global streaming platform?
How do I get this chart? I arrived at this chart by first and foremost studying the data set available to me on Google Sheets. To determine if Netflix is truly a global streaming platform, I need to know the number of countries people are making use of the platform, which then prompted me to find out the number of countries Netflix uploaded their movies and TV series. I am able to get the chat with the help of an automation or AI tool on Google Sheets called Explore. I used Explore by alighting the column (Country) I want to analyze by flitering it first (as seen in Fig 1.1). Afterward, I clicked on it then press Alt+Shift+X to pop up the explore dialogue box then I generated the chart.
Data Analysis: So based on this analysis and chart above it is safe to say that Netflix is truly a global streaming platform as its been streamed in 7,975 countries around the world.
Research Question 2: Is Netflix all-inclusive?
For us to classify Netflix as a global streaming platform, it is pertinent to determine whether or not the platform is all inclusive, that is, it serves a wide range of categories of people or audiences. To do this, I need to find out and analyze the categories of people Netflix serves by checking out their movies and TV series ratings. Netflix uploads different types of TV shows and movies for different audiences. From the types of ratings, I found what the various types of ratings stand for by looking at the different types of ratings; G stands for “general public.” Parental supervision is advised. NR is an abbreviation for Not Rated. PG-13 is intended for teenagers above the age of 13, but only with adult supervision; R is intended only for adults. TV-Y is for all children, TV-Y7 is for children over the age of 7, TV-G is for the general public, TV-PG is for teenagers over the age of 14, TV-14 is only for mature people, and Restricted: R – Children under the age of 17 must be accompanied by an adult guardian or parent. This is an overview of the target audiences for which Netflix provides services. As we can see in Fig 2.1, it is obvious that Netflix is an all inclusive streaming platform as it uploaded movies and TV shows for different categories of audiences. Although TV – MA has the highest number of uploads.
How I arrived at these charts: For Fig 2.0, I clicked on the rating column in the Google Sheets and press Alt + Shift + X to get the automation tool (Explore) to come up. I then clicked column stat to generate the chart. I reaped the same process for the Fig 2.1 chart.
Research Question 3: Is Netflix promoting itself as a film or television show platform?
How I get this chart: I alighted the show id icon (Column B), clicked on it and then pressed Alt + Shift +X X to get the automation tool (Explore) to come up, then I drag the chart to the spreadsheet, and clicked on the three dots at the right top of the dialogue box, then I clicked on download to download the chart and save it on my computer.
Data Analysis: As seen in fig 3.0 above, it is clear that Netflix uploads more movies than TV shows. 69.6% of Netflix uploads on this data were movies while 30.4% were TV shows. Despite the fact that more movies were uploaded than TV shows, it is not safe however to say that audiences or subscriber view movies more than TV shows as this is not spitulated or stated in this data, which can be referred to as one of the limitations of this set of data.
Research Question 4: Which countries are the most popular on Netflix?
How I get this chart: I alighted the show id icon (Column B), clicked on it and then pressed Alt + Shift +X X to get the automation tool (Explore) to come up, then I drag the chart to the spreadsheet and clicked on the three dots at the right top of the dialogue box, then I clicked on download to download the chart and save it on my computer.
Data analysis: Despite the fact that Netflix is a global streaming platform, it is not possible for the organization to have the same number of subscribers or audiences across different countries. So, Fig 4.0 shows the number of top countries where Netflix is predominant or popular. As seen on the chart, 35.3% of Netflix audiences come from the United States of America, which is not surprising though, this is because Netflix originated from the United States of America. Followed by India with 12.2%. This might be because India is one of the largest movie industries in the world. And United Kingdom with 5.3%. It is safe to say this is one of the advantages of data analysis because this kind of data will help Netflix to know where they have strength and where they need to improve.
Research Question 5: Does Netflix have global casts?
How I arrived at this chart: I also get this chart with the help of the Google Sheets AI tool known as Explore. I get it by alighting the column E (Cast) in the Google Sheets, it brought up the number of casts, which is 7,983, then I clicked on Explore, which brings up a dialogue bus and I typed “Count of cast by country” in the Ask about this data box and it generated the pie chart.
Data analysis: As it’s shown in the pie chart above (Fig 5.0), the United States of America again has the highest number of cast, which is 53.0%, followed by India with 20.0% and the United Kingdom with 7.5%. This is another reason or data that proves that Netflix is truly a global streaming platform.
Learning outcome, Challenges, and Opportunities
I started this research work by asking myself certain questions in order to understand where to start and my target goals. I first of first find out the importance and limitations of data and why is it relevant to my course of study. During my research, I discovered that this module is very key and important to various organizations, media outlets inclusive. I also discovered that data analysis is also used by international organizations and media houses to arrive at their facts and figures. So the next step is to go to the data repositories section of the blackboard and see any raw data or data set that I have interest in analyzing. The first one I love to work with is the news from Africa and endsars data but I tried several times to import it into Google Sheets but it keeps saying the file is too large to import. I tried to reduce the size of the files by searching file size reducers websites on Google but none of the websites I visited could do it as they don’t support CSV files. So in the cause of my research, I learned that the amount of data that Google Sheets can handle without skewing is limited and after browsing the blackboard further, I saw that the size of Netflix data is good for Google Sheets. Since I enjoy Netflix also, I thought this is an avenue for me to learn more about the company and how to analyze streaming platform. I decided to use Google Sheets for my analysis because I am conversant and convenient using it as have played with it and watch Youtube videos on Google Sheets.
So I proceed by learning more about Netflix, its origin, and how it started the platform, this enable me to come up with my research questions mentioned above. I also learn about add-ons and AI tools on Google Sheets that automate and make data analysis easier via a video I came across on Youtube by Measure School called quick data analysis with Google Sheets. This research also taught me about various rating categories in the film industry, such as; G stands for “general public.” Parental supervision is advised. NR is an abbreviation for Not Rated. PG-13 is intended for teenagers above the age of 13, but only with adult supervision; R is intended only for adults. TV-Y is for all children, TV-Y7 is for children over the age of 7, TV-G is for the general public, TV-PG is for teenagers over the age of 14, TV-14 is only for mature people, and Restricted: R – Children under the age of 17 must be accompanied by an adult guardian or parent.
This is great research work as I plan to start learning more about data analysis because it is gradually becoming part of every organization or our day to day activities. When I watched the Youtube video by Measure School, I learn that I can export data from my blog or website to Google Sheets to analyze data about the performance of my blog or website with the help of Google Export Function, which I wasn’t aware of before now.
Conclusion
This research is critical and can be used to a wide range of fields, not simply streaming services. The majority of the research questions listed above can be used to learn more about a product’s or service’s global distribution. It is also beneficial to consider the product or service’s saturation around the world or within the jurisdiction of any organisation. A sales and marketing team will benefit greatly from this because they will be able to plan strategically and make decisions. A data-driven planning approach has boundless potential because its importance transcends.
References
Richard L., Carl W. & Matthew E (2011). The era of “Big Data” is upon us
12 reasons why data is important. The Council on Quality and Leadership. Retrieved 27 April 2023 from https://www.c-q-l.org/resources/guides/12-reasons-why-data-is-important/#:~:text=Good%20data%20allows%20organizations%20to,a%20particular%20solution%20is%20implemented.
Palak K.Advantages and Limitations of Data Analytics. Retrieved 28 April 2023 from https://www.sigmamagic.com/blogs/analytics-advantages-and-limitations/
Video reference:
