# Unlocking Scaling Law in Industrial Recommendation Systems with a Three-step Paradigm based Large User Model

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.08309 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08309/

## Key facts

- Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Feb 2025.

## Built on by (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [Reasoning over Semantic IDs Enhances Generative Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.23183/) (2026)
- [ECKGBench: Benchmarking Large Language Models in E-commerce Leveraging Knowledge Graph](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15990/) (2025)
- [GR-LLMs: Recent Advances in Generative Recommendation Based on Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.06507/) (2025)
- [From Scaling to Structured Expressivity: Rethinking Transformers for CTR Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.12081/) (2025)
- [End-to-End Semantic ID Generation for Generative Advertisement Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.10445/) (2026)
- [RecIS: Sparse to Dense, A Unified Training Framework for Recommendation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.20883/) (2025)
- [RelayGR: Scaling Long-Sequence Generative Recommendation via Cross-Stage Relay-Race Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.01712/) (2026)
- [PRECTR-V2:Unified Relevance-CTR Framework with Cross-User Preference Mining, Exposure Bias Correction, and LLM-Distilled Encoder Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.20676/) (2026)
- [UniPinRec: Unifying Generative Retrieval and Ranking at Pinterest Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.00422/) (2026)
- [DiffusionGS: Generative Search with Query Conditioned Diffusion in Kuaishou](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.17754/) (2025)
- [Exploring Test-time Scaling via Prediction Merging on Large-Scale Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07650/) (2025)
- [Principled Synthetic Data Enables the First Scaling Laws for LLMs in Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07298/) (2026)
- [Deep Interest Mining for Intent-Enriched Semantic IDs in Multimodal Generative Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.20861/) (2026)
- [GALA: Generative Aligned Learning for Adaptive Multimodal Representation in the Taobao Shangou Recommender System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.29213/) (2026)
- [RecPFN: Prior-Fitted Networks for In-Context-Based Recommendations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19735/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advancements in autoregressive Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved significant milestones, largely attributed to their scalability, often referred to as the "scaling law". Inspired by these achievements, there has been a growing interest in adapting LLMs for Recommendation Systems (RecSys) by reformulating RecSys tasks into generative problems. However, these End-to-End Generative Recommendation (E2E-GR) methods tend to prioritize idealized goals, often at the expense of the practical advantages offered by traditional Deep Learning based Recommendation Models (DLRMs) in terms of in features, architecture, and practices. This disparity between idealized goals and practical needs introduces several challenges and limitations, locking the scaling law in industrial RecSys. In this paper, we introduce a large user model (LUM) that addresses these limitations through a three-step paradigm, designed to meet the stringent requirements of industrial settings while unlocking the potential for scalable recommendations. Our extensive experimental evaluations demonstrate that LUM outperforms both state-of-the-art DLRMs and E2E-GR approaches. Notably, LUM exhibits excellent scalability, with performance improvements observed as the model scales up to 7 billion parameters. Additionally, we have successfully deployed LUM in an industrial application, where it achieved significant gains in an A/B test, further validating its effectiveness and practicality.