Group Watching > Solo Lurking

I just read this article on TechCrunch about new movie- (as well as future book-, app-, game-, and tv-) recommendation platform called Foundd. And now I'm here typing in this little box because Foundd has a pretty unique value add for this space, one that's intriguing enough to have me here typing in this little box now. The value add is group recommendations:

Berlin-based Foundd is a new movie recommendation service launching this week, which not only finds you movies you would like to watch, but also helps a group decide on a movie they can watch together. It’s an interesting twist on the concept of personalized recommendation engines, like those created by Netflix or Amazon, for example, which seemingly presume that watching movies is a solitary experience. While that’s sometimes true, you’re just as often watching movies with family or friends…and arguing about what to watch.

I wasn't able to actually test out this group recommending/viewing mechanism since after onboarding I found myself with zero Foundd friends [ :( ], but I'm still excited to see a platform in the recommendation/content space whose founders are trying to build into its architecture an understanding of what its community needs to function comfortably. A quick stroll through the Foundd world does not reveal beyond the group recommendation function much more of an attempt to differentiate itself from the bigger player Netflixes or smaller renegade Filmasters of this space.

Still, it's clear that the Berlinese men of Foundd are thinking about their community's needs and group behavior generally, and it will be cool to see if/how they move more towards making Foundd a real-time community experience instead of another static (if helpful) algorithmic lurk-zone.