A Comparative Study of Recommender Systems under Big Data Constraints

Recommender Systems (RS) have become essential tools in a wide range of digital services, from e-commerce and streaming platforms to news and social media. As the volume of user-item interactions grows exponentially, especially in Big Data environments, selecting the most appropriate RS model becomes a critical task. This paper presents a comparative study of several state-of-the-art recommender algorithms, including EASE-R, SLIM, SLIM with ElasticNet regularization, Matrix Factorization (FunkSVD and ALS), P3Alpha, and RP3Beta. We evaluate these models according to key criteria such as scalability, computational complexity, predictive accuracy, and interpretability. The analysis considers both their theoretical underpinnings and practical applicability in large-scale scenarios. Our results highlight that while models like SLIM and SLIM-ElasticNet offer high accuracy and interpretability, they suffer from high computational costs, making them less suitable for real-time applications. In contrast, algorithms such as EASE-R and RP3Beta achieve a favorable balance between performance and scalability, proving more effective in large-scale environments. This study aims to provide guidelines for selecting the most appropriate recommender approach based on specific Big Data constraints and system requirements.