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I've never been able to understand why netflix benefits from autoplaying - you're not selling anything, you're just delivering content - so why does autoplaying

I've never been able to understand why netflix benefits from autoplaying - you're not selling anything, you're just delivering content - so why does autoplaying, which presumably has some measurable, additional cost for bandwidth, end up benefiting the company? Does the perceived value of netflix increase when autoplay is enabled? I really want to understand this, I've been strung up on this for a while.

orev 7y ago
When you start measuring something, that thing tends to become what you optimize for, regardless of if it actually makes sense. Hours spent watching is some kind of indicator of whether people enjoy using the service, and is also a nice clean metric to be able to report on.
mbreese 7y ago
When you have to choose between "watch the next episode" or "watch something else", Netflix benefits when the default is "watch the next episode". When you have to consciously choose to watch the next episode, you can also make the choice to turn off Netflix and do something else. The more you watch Netflix, the more likely you are to keep paying for it. When you actively choose to do something else, the less likely you are to keep paying for Netflix. It's not the perceived value, it's the choice. When you have to make the choice, you could choose to spend more time with something else (like a video game, a Hulu show, etc...). If you choose to do that, you might get sucked into that game or show and decide to not come back to Netflix. Netflix would rather spend the few cents it costs to stream you a new video (which is probably already cached at your ISP) than make your choice to do something else explicit. That said, I think it's a great feature that makes it easy to binge through a series. Its beneficial to both parties in that way -- I get to not move from my couch and they get to send me more entertainment (and keep me paying them). Also -- the more you watch of a series, the more you'll talk about it to your friends. And the more likely they are to watch it. If you get stuck on Episode 2 of 10, you're not as likely to talk about it. But if you keep going to episode 3, 4, 5, then you are more likely to finish the series. And if you finish, you'll probably talk about it, and then the cycle continues...
jerf 7y ago
The probability of you cancelling Netflix in a given month is inversely proportional to the amount of Netflix you or your household watched [1]. The expense of a marginal delivery of a particular episode's worth of resources is a great deal less for Netflix than the revenue of your subscription. [1]: To a first approximation, anyhow. I bet there's a bump at zero, where people just entirely forget Netflix exists but they are still subscribed. If someone watches a single thing a month they're probably more likely to eventually realize they're not using it enough.
- leereeves 7y ago
  I suspect there's also an inverse relationship at the high end, because of people like me who'll subscribe for a month, watch all the new content, then cancel.

orev 7y ago

When you start measuring something, that thing tends to become what you optimize for, regardless of if it actually makes sense. Hours spent watching is some kind of indicator of whether people enjoy using the service, and is also a nice clean metric to be able to report on.

mbreese 7y ago

When you have to choose between "watch the next episode" or "watch something else", Netflix benefits when the default is "watch the next episode". When you have to consciously choose to watch the next episode, you can also make the choice to turn off Netflix and do something else. The more you watch Netflix, the more likely you are to keep paying for it. When you actively choose to do something else, the less likely you are to keep paying for Netflix. It's not the perceived value, it's the choice. When you have to make the choice, you could choose to spend more time with something else (like a video game, a Hulu show, etc...). If you choose to do that, you might get sucked into that game or show and decide to not come back to Netflix. Netflix would rather spend the few cents it costs to stream you a new video (which is probably already cached at your ISP) than make your choice to do something else explicit. That said, I think it's a great feature that makes it easy to binge through a series. Its beneficial to both parties in that way -- I get to not move from my couch and they get to send me more entertainment (and keep me paying them). Also -- the more you watch of a series, the more you'll talk about it to your friends. And the more likely they are to watch it. If you get stuck on Episode 2 of 10, you're not as likely to talk about it. But if you keep going to episode 3, 4, 5, then you are more likely to finish the series. And if you finish, you'll probably talk about it, and then the cycle continues...

jerf 7y ago

The probability of you cancelling Netflix in a given month is inversely proportional to the amount of Netflix you or your household watched [1]. The expense of a marginal delivery of a particular episode's worth of resources is a great deal less for Netflix than the revenue of your subscription. [1]: To a first approximation, anyhow. I bet there's a bump at zero, where people just entirely forget Netflix exists but they are still subscribed. If someone watches a single thing a month they're probably more likely to eventually realize they're not using it enough.

leereeves 7y ago
I suspect there's also an inverse relationship at the high end, because of people like me who'll subscribe for a month, watch all the new content, then cancel.