I don't think its fair to say payroll should always be the largest expense. Different businesses have different cost structures. I used to run a hosting compa

I don't think its fair to say payroll should always be the largest expense. Different businesses have different cost structures. I used to run a hosting company and as we scaled up our bandwidth and infra costs eclipsed our payroll costs. In many retail businesses rent and advertising eclipses payroll. With regards to Netflix in particular, I think it makes sense that licensing costs are higher than payroll costs.