Pay for taste

The online service guarantees that you will enjoy the performance

Users of the Imhonet recommendation service have the opportunity to insure themselves against an unsuccessful visit to the performance. If you don’t like the theatrical production recommended by the system, Imhonet will return the price of one ticket out of two, but not more than 1,500 rubles. The owners of the service intend to pay at least 10 thousand compensation. The promotion is limited in time to April (insurance applications are accepted during this month, payments can be received later), but most likely it will be extended.

To date, 600 people have been insured, none of whom have applied for payment. “We decided to carry out such an action because we are confident in the accuracy of our recommendations,” says Andrey Akopyants, head of the portal’s research department. -- On average, the deviation of the predicted assessment from the actual one does not exceed one point on a ten-point scale. This is a very good result." Elena Lebedeva, a representative of Imhonet, admitted that she is waiting with interest for the first to apply for an insurance premium. User complaints interest Ms. Lebedeva more than savings on payments to dissatisfied theatergoers. According to Imhonet representatives, insurance for unsuccessful play recommendations is being offered for the first time in the world.

The fundamental novelty of the proposed scheme is that until now only cases in which it was possible to proceed from objective evidence were subject to mass insurance. For cultural products and services, such objectivity is understandably unattainable. However, according to the management of Imkhonet, it is possible to do without it. “Our action is based on the mechanisms of trust and conscientiousness, the mechanisms of reputation and identification of a person in a community that is significant to him. The user cannot prove with facts in his hands that he did not like the play or film, this is not required of him,” says the owner of Imkhonet, professor at the Higher School of Economics Alexander Dolgin. To receive compensation, the user just needs to give a negative rating to the performance, write his review on the website and inform the organizers of the event about his desire to return the money.

Theater critic Olga Roginskaya considers the idea dubious. “It’s not very clear exactly how viewers will formulate their request. If this is a theatergoer who follows the process, he himself will figure out where and how to turn for an expert opinion, and he will not be afraid of attending an unsuccessful performance. If this is a casual viewer, then both his wishes and impressions will be of the same random nature. In my opinion, this action will not have the effect that its organizers hope to achieve. It would be worth initiating actions that would contribute to the formation of theatrical taste among the viewer,” says Ms. Roginskaya.

It is unclear, however, exactly what effect the organizers are counting on. “What is considered success? That no one applied for insurance payment? But perhaps the promotion was not noticed or users are too busy to take the time to receive compensation. So, did someone finally apply for compensation? This may mean that the system is not accurate enough. It would be interesting to know what part of the users who used the recommendations were dissatisfied with their choice,” says Dmitry Stepanov, executive director of Afisha Digital.

The recommendation service is based on computer processing of data provided by Imhonet users themselves in the process of evaluating books, music, films, and performances. Each active user of the service has the opportunity, using a specially developed algorithm, to take advantage of recommendations from people whose tastes are closest to him.

Olga FEDINA, iToday.ru, - specially for Vremya Novostei