4 ms·

Netflix makes the most sense. Apple is pretty weak with content. Would Tesla thrive under apple with Musk as the visionary? Hulu sounds like a terrible idea

by tdburn 9y ago

jdfreefly 9y ago
I would think Netflix's strong ties to AWS would be a non-starter for Apple.
- mdahlstrand 9y ago
  How so? I thought apple uses aws (and google's cloud too) for some of their services.
ProAm 9y ago
Please no. Apple will ruin Netflix.
- zeveb 9y ago
  As a Netflix customer and happy Apple non-customer, I'm scared to death of Apple buying Netflix. So much for openness and competition! So much for cross-platform support! And the worst thing is, the great mass of Apple ecosystem inhabitants wouldn't even see the problem.
  - johneth 9y ago
    You realise that Apple Music is also available on a competing platform (Android)? Netflix's success is, in large part, because of it's ubiquity in the platforms where it's available. If Apple ever bought Netflix, I doubt they'd remove it from other platforms.
    - lowtolerance 9y ago
      Apple Music is available on Android and Windows. It would make absolutely no sense for them to buy Netflix only to cut out the vast majority of Netflix users by making it only available on Apple's own platforms.
  - mundoayala 9y ago
    Although it's not the greatest example. When Apple bought Beats and rebranded to Apple Music they still publish to Android via Google Play Store.. so they've shown cross-platform support?
  - cat199 9y ago
    Netflix imho nowadays is trying to be the HBO of cord-cutters - In the primarily mail-dvd days, they were like the awesome video store that has everything; netflix online only has a (admittedly large) handful of titles, with ever more emphasis on the ever increasing quantity of self-produced titles... While I was once very pro-netflix as a consumer, imagning one day that I'd be able to watch anything at all ever produced with a low subscription - I'm more ambivalent now imagining the future when the dvd rentals (and associated vast library) are dropped entirely and never digitized..
    - 1123581321 9y ago
      Physical DVD rentals don't require the expensive licensing deals with individual publishers that digital rental and streaming do. Netflix would offer every movie available in DVD if allowed.
  - heavymark 9y ago
    If Apple were to buy Netflix, which I don't think would make any sense from a business perspective. That being said, the only thing that would make even less sense would be for Apple to buy Netflix and then make it no longer available on the web or any device other than Mac. That would make 0 sense. And I'm sure you are aware Apple Music for instance is built and supports both iOS and Android.
- drewg123 9y ago
  As a Netflix employee, I echo this sentiment. Netflix is the best place I've ever worked (and I've also worked at Google). I'm sure any takeover would ruin our culture of freedom and responsibility. I can't imagine dealing with siloed secrecy that I've heard about from Apple employees.
  - rocgf 9y ago
    I find this interesting. While Google's culture and perks are fetishized in any sort of online thread, I haven't heard much about Netflix. As an outsider, all I have heard is that there is a lot of pressure to deliver, or otherwise you're out. Genuinely curious, what is better at Netflix vs. Google?
    - drewg123 9y ago
      The basic difference is that Netflix still feels like a small company, in terms of bureaucracy and management overhead. At my level (Senior SWE, promoted to Staff SWE), Google was a place of secrecy verging on paranoia, endless meetings, and insanely huge amounts of process. You had to really work hard to get things done across organizations. Most people were just a cog in the machine, cranking stuff out. The meetings were huge, because all stakeholders needed to feel represented. Google was my first big company, and I'm sure others are worse. But Google was kind of a shock. At Netflix, most groups develop their own process. If you see a problem, you go fix it. If you see an opportunity for improvement, you just do it. There is a lot more independent work, and a lot more small collaborations, especially across organizations. I think most of this comes down to the Google "fungible SWE" concept vs the Netflix "Freedom and Responsibility" culture. For a concrete example, I had a bigger impact at Netflix in my first few weeks than I did in my entire career at Google. Within my first week at Google, I was still taking "new employee" classes and trying to sort out how to use the several different code repos my org used. Within my first week at Netflix, I'd identified and fixed a small regression in our FreeBSD TCP stack that was costing us 3-5% CPU across our CDN. The one thing that sums up the different cultures is business travel. At Google (at least when I was there), you needed to find airfare and hotel that was at or below the median price paid by other Googlers. If you didn't, you needed to get your VP to sign off on your travel expenses. At Netflix, you book things yourself, looking out for the best interests of the company, and submit your expense report & get reimbursed 48hrs later. The food was much better at Google, though. And I really miss TGIF, eng-misc, and memegen.
LordKano 9y ago
I could see Netflix or Hulu, depending on price. But I would hate to see it happen because I think that Apple would ruin Netflix.
lalaithion 9y ago
Apple should buy Tesla and make Musk their CEO.

Netflix makes the most sense. Apple is pretty weak with content. Would Tesla thrive under apple with Musk as the visionary? Hulu sounds like a terrible idea

by tdburn 9y ago

Netflix makes the most sense. Apple is pretty weak with content. Would Tesla thrive under apple with Musk as the visionary? Hulu sounds like a terrible idea

jdfreefly 9y ago

I would think Netflix's strong ties to AWS would be a non-starter for Apple.

mdahlstrand 9y ago
How so? I thought apple uses aws (and google's cloud too) for some of their services.

ProAm 9y ago

Please no. Apple will ruin Netflix.

zeveb 9y ago
As a Netflix customer and happy Apple non-customer, I'm scared to death of Apple buying Netflix. So much for openness and competition! So much for cross-platform support! And the worst thing is, the great mass of Apple ecosystem inhabitants wouldn't even see the problem.
- johneth 9y ago
  You realise that Apple Music is also available on a competing platform (Android)? Netflix's success is, in large part, because of it's ubiquity in the platforms where it's available. If Apple ever bought Netflix, I doubt they'd remove it from other platforms.
  - lowtolerance 9y ago
    Apple Music is available on Android and Windows. It would make absolutely no sense for them to buy Netflix only to cut out the vast majority of Netflix users by making it only available on Apple's own platforms.
- mundoayala 9y ago
  Although it's not the greatest example. When Apple bought Beats and rebranded to Apple Music they still publish to Android via Google Play Store.. so they've shown cross-platform support?
- cat199 9y ago
  Netflix imho nowadays is trying to be the HBO of cord-cutters - In the primarily mail-dvd days, they were like the awesome video store that has everything; netflix online only has a (admittedly large) handful of titles, with ever more emphasis on the ever increasing quantity of self-produced titles... While I was once very pro-netflix as a consumer, imagning one day that I'd be able to watch anything at all ever produced with a low subscription - I'm more ambivalent now imagining the future when the dvd rentals (and associated vast library) are dropped entirely and never digitized..
  - 1123581321 9y ago
    Physical DVD rentals don't require the expensive licensing deals with individual publishers that digital rental and streaming do. Netflix would offer every movie available in DVD if allowed.
- heavymark 9y ago
  If Apple were to buy Netflix, which I don't think would make any sense from a business perspective. That being said, the only thing that would make even less sense would be for Apple to buy Netflix and then make it no longer available on the web or any device other than Mac. That would make 0 sense. And I'm sure you are aware Apple Music for instance is built and supports both iOS and Android.
drewg123 9y ago
As a Netflix employee, I echo this sentiment. Netflix is the best place I've ever worked (and I've also worked at Google). I'm sure any takeover would ruin our culture of freedom and responsibility. I can't imagine dealing with siloed secrecy that I've heard about from Apple employees.
- rocgf 9y ago
  I find this interesting. While Google's culture and perks are fetishized in any sort of online thread, I haven't heard much about Netflix. As an outsider, all I have heard is that there is a lot of pressure to deliver, or otherwise you're out. Genuinely curious, what is better at Netflix vs. Google?
  - drewg123 9y ago
    The basic difference is that Netflix still feels like a small company, in terms of bureaucracy and management overhead. At my level (Senior SWE, promoted to Staff SWE), Google was a place of secrecy verging on paranoia, endless meetings, and insanely huge amounts of process. You had to really work hard to get things done across organizations. Most people were just a cog in the machine, cranking stuff out. The meetings were huge, because all stakeholders needed to feel represented. Google was my first big company, and I'm sure others are worse. But Google was kind of a shock. At Netflix, most groups develop their own process. If you see a problem, you go fix it. If you see an opportunity for improvement, you just do it. There is a lot more independent work, and a lot more small collaborations, especially across organizations. I think most of this comes down to the Google "fungible SWE" concept vs the Netflix "Freedom and Responsibility" culture. For a concrete example, I had a bigger impact at Netflix in my first few weeks than I did in my entire career at Google. Within my first week at Google, I was still taking "new employee" classes and trying to sort out how to use the several different code repos my org used. Within my first week at Netflix, I'd identified and fixed a small regression in our FreeBSD TCP stack that was costing us 3-5% CPU across our CDN. The one thing that sums up the different cultures is business travel. At Google (at least when I was there), you needed to find airfare and hotel that was at or below the median price paid by other Googlers. If you didn't, you needed to get your VP to sign off on your travel expenses. At Netflix, you book things yourself, looking out for the best interests of the company, and submit your expense report & get reimbursed 48hrs later. The food was much better at Google, though. And I really miss TGIF, eng-misc, and memegen.

LordKano 9y ago

I could see Netflix or Hulu, depending on price. But I would hate to see it happen because I think that Apple would ruin Netflix.

lalaithion 9y ago

Apple should buy Tesla and make Musk their CEO.