Sequential Regression for Continuous Value Prediction using Residual Quantization

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Hauptverfasser: Cui, Runpeng, Sun, Zhipeng, Lu, Chi, Jiang, Peng
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Cui, Runpeng
Sun, Zhipeng
Lu, Chi
Jiang, Peng
author_facet Cui, Runpeng
Sun, Zhipeng
Lu, Chi
Jiang, Peng
contents Continuous value prediction plays a crucial role in industrial-scale recommendation systems, including tasks such as predicting users' watch-time and estimating the gross merchandise value (GMV) in e-commerce transactions. However, it remains challenging due to the highly complex and long-tailed nature of the data distributions. Existing generative approaches rely on rigid parametric distribution assumptions, which fundamentally limits their performance when such assumptions misalign with real-world data. Overly simplified forms cannot adequately model real-world complexities, while more intricate assumptions often suffer from poor scalability and generalization. To address these challenges, we propose a residual quantization (RQ)-based sequence learning framework that represents target continuous values as a sum of ordered quantization codes, predicted recursively from coarse to fine granularity with diminishing quantization errors. We introduce a representation learning objective that aligns RQ code embedding space with the ordinal structure of target values, allowing the model to capture continuous representations for quantization codes and further improving prediction accuracy. We perform extensive evaluations on public benchmarks for lifetime value (LTV) and watch-time prediction, alongside a large-scale online experiment for GMV prediction on an industrial short-video recommendation platform. The results consistently show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods, while demonstrating strong generalization across diverse continuous value prediction tasks in recommendation systems.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_23012
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
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spellingShingle Sequential Regression for Continuous Value Prediction using Residual Quantization
Cui, Runpeng
Sun, Zhipeng
Lu, Chi
Jiang, Peng
Information Retrieval
Machine Learning
Continuous value prediction plays a crucial role in industrial-scale recommendation systems, including tasks such as predicting users' watch-time and estimating the gross merchandise value (GMV) in e-commerce transactions. However, it remains challenging due to the highly complex and long-tailed nature of the data distributions. Existing generative approaches rely on rigid parametric distribution assumptions, which fundamentally limits their performance when such assumptions misalign with real-world data. Overly simplified forms cannot adequately model real-world complexities, while more intricate assumptions often suffer from poor scalability and generalization. To address these challenges, we propose a residual quantization (RQ)-based sequence learning framework that represents target continuous values as a sum of ordered quantization codes, predicted recursively from coarse to fine granularity with diminishing quantization errors. We introduce a representation learning objective that aligns RQ code embedding space with the ordinal structure of target values, allowing the model to capture continuous representations for quantization codes and further improving prediction accuracy. We perform extensive evaluations on public benchmarks for lifetime value (LTV) and watch-time prediction, alongside a large-scale online experiment for GMV prediction on an industrial short-video recommendation platform. The results consistently show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods, while demonstrating strong generalization across diverse continuous value prediction tasks in recommendation systems.
title Sequential Regression for Continuous Value Prediction using Residual Quantization
topic Information Retrieval
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.23012