为匹配平台设计新算法,专注提升用户留存而非单纯增加匹配数。
Beyond Match Maximization and Fairness: Retention-Optimized Two-Sided Matching
- 基于用户历史行为学习个性化留存曲线,动态调整推荐策略。
- 在真实约会平台数据上,留存率显著高于传统匹配与公平性算法。
- 适合关注长期用户活跃度的平台,如订阅制社交应用。
在在线婚恋、招聘等双边匹配平台中,推荐算法常以最大化匹配总数为目标,导致部分用户获得过多匹配而多数用户匹配过少,最终流失。用户留存对依赖订阅的平台至关重要,仅追求公平性无法保障留存。本文提出以用户留存为核心目标的新问题设定,并设计动态学习排序算法MRet。该算法通过建模每位用户的个性化留存曲线,动态权衡推荐者与被推荐者的留存收益,将有限的匹配机会分配至最能提升整体留存的位置。在合成数据和某大型在线婚恋平台的真实数据上的实验表明,相较于优化匹配数或公平性的传统方法,MRet能显著提升用户留存率。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
On two-sided matching platforms such as online dating and recruiting, recommendation algorithms often aim to maximize the total number of matches. However, this objective creates an imbalance, where some users receive far too many matches while many others receive very few and eventually abandon the platform. Retaining users is crucial for many platforms, such as those that depend heavily on subscriptions. Some may use fairness objectives to solve the problem of match maximization. However, fairness in itself is not the ultimate objective for many platforms, as users do not suddenly reward the platform simply because exposure is equalized. In practice, where user retention is often the ultimate goal, casually relying on fairness will leave the optimization of retention up to luck. In this work, instead of maximizing matches or axiomatically defining fairness, we formally define the new problem setting of maximizing user retention in two-sided matching platforms. To this end, we introduce a dynamic learning-to-rank (LTR) algorithm called Matching for Retention (MRet). Unlike conventional algorithms for two-sided matching, our approach models user retention by learning personalized retention curves from each user's profile and interaction history. Based on these curves, MRet dynamically adapts recommendations by jointly considering the retention gains of both the user receiving recommendations and those who are being recommended, so that limited matching opportunities can be allocated where they most improve overall retention. Naturally but importantly, empirical evaluations on synthetic and real-world datasets from a major online dating platform show that MRet achieves higher user retention, since conventional methods optimize matches or fairness rather than retention.
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