How and Why Netflix Built a Real-Time Distributed Graph: Part 1 — Ingesting and Processing Data Streams at Internet Scale

The Netflix product experience historically consisted of a single core offering: streaming video on demand. Our members logged into the app, browsed, and watched titles such as Stranger Things, Squid Game, and Bridgerton. Although this is still the core of our product, our business has changed significantly over the last few years. For example, we introduced ad-supported plans, live programming events (e.g., Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson and NFL Christmas Day Games), and mobile games as part of a Netflix subscription. This evolution of our business has created a new class of problems where we have to analyze member interactions with the app across different business verticals.