Distribution-aware Re-representations for Multi-Scenario Recommendations
Abstract
Modern applications provided personalized recommendations across diverse scenarios, including the homepage, local pages, and live streams on platforms like TikTok. These scenarios exhibit varying user behavior patterns, resulting in heterogeneous yet interrelated distributions. Existing Multi-Scenario Recommendation (MSR) methods usually use parameter-sharing networks for shared features and scenario-specific networks for unique features. However, these methods fail to handle different distribution across scenarios, resulting in representation entanglement and localization, which hinder effective knowledge transfer and compromise performance. In this paper, we propose a Distribution-aware Re-representations (DAR) method for MSR. Its core idea is to construct distribution-aware prototype spaces and learn disentangled re-representations around global prototypes. Specifically, DAR employs a Multi-gate Mixture of Experts (MMoE) to obtain scenario-shared representations, and uses independent networks to learn scenario-specific representations. These representations are then projected into scenario-shared and scenario-specific prototype spaces, producing scenario-shared re-representations (capturing global information) and scenario-specific re-representations (focusing on distributional differences). During this process, DAR utilizes Unbalanced Optimal Transport (UOT) to compute the transport relationships between representations and global prototypes, taking these as pseudo-labels for re-representation learning. Moreover, to prevent prototype entanglement, a matrix orthogonalization constraint ensures independence among global prototypes. The effectiveness of DAR is demonstrated through extensive offline experiments conducted on four datasets, as well as online A/B tests on a video platform.
Assigned reviewers
| # | Reviewer | Match | Why (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jinxin Hu | 52 | 100 Scenario-Adaptive and Self-Supervised Model for Multi-Scenario Personalized Recommendation (2022) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction 100 Global-Distribution Aware Scenario-Specific Variational Representation Learning Framework (2025) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction 100 Scenario-Adaptive Fine-Grained Personalization Network: Tailoring User Behavior Representation to the Scenario Context (2024) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction |
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| 2 | Jiangxia Cao | 49 | 63 Towards Universal Cross-Domain Recommendation (2023) Multi-Domain and Multi-Market Recommendation 63 Item Similarity Mining for Multi-Market Recommendation (2022) Multi-Domain and Multi-Market Recommendation 61 Cross-Domain Recommendation to Cold-Start Users via Variational Information Bottleneck (2022) Domain Adaptation and Disentangled Representation for CDR |
Area chair
| Area chair | Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Leyu Lin | 44 |
Area-chair candidates (6)
| Leyu Lin assigned | 44 | 15 papers | |
| Yanan Niu | 41 | 15 papers | |
| Weiming Liu 0005 | 40 | 8 papers | |
| Kun Gai | 38 | 5 papers | |
| Xiaoyi Zeng | 36 | 11 papers | |
| Xin Xin 0003 | 35 | 10 papers |
Candidates from the panel ranked by match score
| # | Reviewer | Match | Load | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ke Fei | 55 | 3 | 71 Stable and Adaptive Fusion for Multi-domain Multi-task Recommendation (2026) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction 52 Entire-Space Variational Information Exploitation for Post-Click Conversion Rate Prediction (2025) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction |
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| 2 | Yong He 0009 | 54 | 3 | 100 SAMD: An Industrial Framework for Heterogeneous Multi-Scenario Recommendation (2023) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction 76 MI-DPG: Decomposable Parameter Generation Network Based on Mutual Information for Multi-Scenario Recommendation (2023) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction |
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| 3 | Jinxin Hu assigned | 52 | 3 | 100 Scenario-Adaptive and Self-Supervised Model for Multi-Scenario Personalized Recommendation (2022) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction 100 Global-Distribution Aware Scenario-Specific Variational Representation Learning Framework (2025) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction |
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| 4 | Jiangxia Cao assigned | 49 | 3 | 63 Towards Universal Cross-Domain Recommendation (2023) Multi-Domain and Multi-Market Recommendation 63 Item Similarity Mining for Multi-Market Recommendation (2022) Multi-Domain and Multi-Market Recommendation |
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| 5 | Hao Liu 0078 | 47 | 3 | 62 MCRPL: A Pretrain, Prompt, and Fine-tune Paradigm for Non-overlapping Many-to-one Cross-domain Recommendation (2024) Domain Adaptation and Disentangled Representation for CDR 61 DA-DAN: A Dual Adversarial Domain Adaption Network for Unsupervised Non-overlapping Cross-domain Recommendation (2024) Domain Adaptation and Disentangled Representation for CDR |
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| 6 | Junwei Pan | 44 | 3 | 63 Decoupled Training: Return of Frustratingly Easy Multi-Domain Learning (2024) Multi-Domain and Multi-Market Recommendation 62 Crocodile: Cross Experts Covariance for Disentangled Learning in Multi-Domain Recommendation (2025) Domain Adaptation and Disentangled Representation for CDR |
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| 8 | Qiang Luo 0004 | 43 | 3 | 76 One Model to Serve All: Star Topology Adaptive Recommender for Multi-Domain CTR Prediction (2021) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction 61 FARM: Frequency-Aware Model for Cross-Domain Live-Streaming Recommendation (2026) Domain Adaptation and Disentangled Representation for CDR |
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| 10 | Yu Zhang 0206 | 41 | 3 | 71 Global-Distribution Aware Scenario-Specific Variational Representation Learning Framework (2025) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction 71 Scenario-Adaptive Fine-Grained Personalization Network: Tailoring User Behavior Representation to the Scenario Context (2024) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction |
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| 11 | Xuanhua Yang | 40 | 3 | 49 AdaSparse: Learning Adaptively Sparse Structures for Multi-Domain Click-Through Rate Prediction (2022) Advertising and Auction Mechanisms 48 Hierarchical User Long-term Behavior Modeling for Click-Through Rate Prediction (2025) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction |
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| 13 | Shuchang Liu 0001 | 39 | 3 | 71 M3oE: Multi-Domain Multi-Task Mixture-of Experts Recommendation Framework (2024) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction 42 Stratified Expert Cloning for Retention-Aware Recommendation at Scale (2025) Multi-Behavior Recommendation |
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| 14 | Bo Chen 0023 | 39 | 3 | 100 PLATE: A Prompt-Enhanced Paradigm for Multi-Scenario Recommendations (2023) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction 40 Generative Representational Learning of Foundation Models for Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 16 | Yuta Saito | 38 | 3 | 46 Doubly Robust Estimator for Ranking Metrics with Post-Click Conversions (2020) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction 39 Off-Policy Evaluation for Large Action Spaces via Embeddings (2022) Long-Term Engagement and Retention Optimization |
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| 17 | Lantao Hu | 38 | 3 | 63 Tag Tree-Guided Multi-grained Alignment for Multi-Domain Short Video Recommendation (2024) Multi-Domain and Multi-Market Recommendation 39 AURO: Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive User Retention Optimization in Recommender Systems (2025) Long-Term Engagement and Retention Optimization |
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| 18 | Wei Guo 0006 | 38 | 3 | 52 Enhancing Explicit and Implicit Feature Interactions via Information Sharing for Parallel Deep CTR Models (2021) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction 52 DLF: Enhancing Explicit-Implicit Interaction via Dynamic Low-Order-Aware Fusion for CTR Prediction (2025) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction |
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| 19 | Chunyang Wang 0001 | 37 | 3 | 51 Multifaceted Relation-aware Meta-learning with Dual Customization for User Cold-start Recommendation (2023) Domain Adaptation and Disentangled Representation for CDR 45 Disentangled Contrastive Learning for Cross-Domain Recommendation (2023) Domain Adaptation and Disentangled Representation for CDR |
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| 20 | Lichan Hong | 37 | 3 | 52 DCN V2: Improved Deep & Cross Network and Practical Lessons for Web-scale Learning to Rank Systems (2021) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction 45 Enhancing Online Ranking Systems via Multi-Surface Co-Training for Content Understanding (2025) Content-Based Transferable Recommendation |
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| 21 | Ke Wang 0038 | 37 | 3 | 52 Contrastive Multi-view Interest Learning for Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation (2024) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation 43 Enhancing Cross-Domain Recommendation with Plug-In Contrastive Representations from Large Language Models (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 22 | Bo Peng 0009 | 37 | 3 | 43 M2: Mixed Models With Preferences, Popularities and Transitions for Next-Basket Recommendation (2023) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 39 Multi-modality meets re-learning: mitigating negative transfer in sequential recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with Side and Multimodal Information |
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| 23 | Jieming Zhu | 36 | 3 | 39 EASE: Learning Lightweight Semantic Feature Adapters from Large Language Models for CTR Prediction (2024) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction 39 Data-free Knowledge Distillation for Reusing Recommendation Models (2023) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction |
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| 24 | Yang Song 0008 | 36 | 3 | 54 Mixed Attention Network for Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation (2024) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation 41 Understanding and Modeling Passive-Negative Feedback for Short-video Sequential Recommendation (2023) Multi-Behavior Recommendation |
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| 25 | Ziru Liu | 36 | 3 | 61 M3oE: Multi-Domain Multi-Task Mixture-of Experts Recommendation Framework (2024) Multi-Task and Multi-Objective Optimization 48 Diff-MSR: A Diffusion Model Enhanced Paradigm for Cold-Start Multi-Scenario Recommendation (2024) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 26 | Huifeng Guo | 36 | 3 | 71 PLATE: A Prompt-Enhanced Paradigm for Multi-Scenario Recommendations (2023) Multi-Scenario and Multi-Domain CTR Prediction 68 Scenario-Wise Rec: A Multi-Scenario Recommendation Benchmark (2025) Recommendation Systems and Evaluation |
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| 28 | Fei Sun 0001 | 36 | 3 | 40 Intent Preference Decoupling for User Representation on Online Recommender System (2020) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling 39 Contrastive Learning for Sequential Recommendation (2022) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 29 | Riwei Lai | 35 | 3 | 54 Proxy-enhanced cross-domain sequential recommendation (2025) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation 52 Proxy-Aware Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation (2023) Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation |
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| 30 | Jie Jiang 0015 | 35 | 3 | 52 AutoAttention: Automatic Field Pair Selection for Attention in User Behavior Modeling (2022) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction 52 Deep Pattern Network for Click-Through Rate Prediction (2024) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction |
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| 31 | Xin Zhang 0091 | 35 | 3 | 46 Deep Session Heterogeneity-Aware Network for Click Through Rate Prediction (2024) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction 46 Deep Dynamic Interest Learning With Session Local and Global Consistency for Click-Through Rate Predictions (2022) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction |
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| 32 | Ed H. Chi | 35 | 3 | 43 Zero-Shot Heterogeneous Transfer Learning from Recommender Systems to Cold-Start Search Retrieval (2020) Search and Recommendation Integration 42 Fresh Content Needs More Attention: Multi-funnel Fresh Content Recommendation (2023) Content and Attribute-Based Cold-Start Recommendation |
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| 33 | Yongxin Ni | 35 | 3 | 43 Multi-Modality is All You Need for Transferable Recommender Systems (2024) Multimodal Generative Recommendation 40 An Image Dataset for Benchmarking Recommender Systems with Raw Pixels (2024) Recommendation Systems and Evaluation |
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| 35 | Qijiong Liu | 35 | 3 | 44 Boosting Deep CTR Prediction with a Plug-and-Play Pre-trainer for News Recommendation (2022) CTR and Conversion Rate Prediction 41 RecBase: Generative Foundation Model Pretraining for Zero-Shot Recommendation (2025) Generative Retrieval and Recommendation Architectures |
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| 36 | Jianling Wang | 35 | 3 | 43 A Hierarchical Self-Attentive Model for Recommending User-Generated Item Lists (2019) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 42 Fresh Content Needs More Attention: Multi-funnel Fresh Content Recommendation (2023) Content and Attribute-Based Cold-Start Recommendation |