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I think Netflix is in a lot of trouble. For years, their catalog has been shrinking, replaced with Netflix Original Series/Movies. For a while, the Original Ser

• asdff 7y ago
  The fact that their autoplaying trailers are still blasting in every one of their apps despite vocal outcry in tech press and all over the internet should be enough to let you know that they are circling the drain. When you ruin your product in effort to game your users, you've already lost.
  • henryfjordan 7y ago
    Don't you think maybe Netflix knows something you don't that led them to make that decision despite the "outcry"? They HAVE to have validated the autoplay approach with some data that proves it achieves some goal of theirs. The fact that they have enough conviction in their data to stick with autoplay despite the bad press should be a very good sign about a company's culture (and therefore their future).
    • dreamcompiler 7y ago
      Autoplay smells very much like a Netflix vice president's pet project. Everybody hates it but it's politically impossible within Netflix to kill it until that vice president leaves. See Google+.
      • washadjeffmad 7y ago
        I'm inclined to agree. A big part of my satisfaction with Prime is simply being able to read the descriptions and explore the metadata, leading me to something I might really enjoy without a preview hijacking my sensorium. What Netflix does is stressful and makes me avoid engaging with their catalog. It's insane they won't let us control that one aspect. My second frustration was when they crippled their catalog API, forcing abetterqueue offline. I'd plan my entire season around that, and now I feel like I only have what their algorithm recommends to my TV's app, which is usually garbage because my SO and I share an account. Prime is far from perfect, but it does less wrong, and what that tells me is that maybe Netflix isn't for me.
    • jdminhbg 7y ago
      > They HAVE to have validated the autoplay approach with some data that proves it achieves some goal of theirs. I don't necessarily agree that they're "circling the drain" as GP put it, but hitting a goal can definitely be a sign that a company is in trouble. Autoplay videos might net them some short-term viewership at the expense of long-term goodwill and engagement.
      • ALittleLight 7y ago
        Being a slave to analytics can lead you to local maximums. "We have n ads. A/B testing shows we'll increase revenue with n+1." Over time you'll have more ads and less revenue. I don't have an opinion regarding Netflix. Ironically, I cancelled it a while ago after realizing I watched more on Amazon.
    • kkarakk 7y ago
      Mcdonalds knows that the VAST MAJORITY of the populace goes to McD for fries,nuggets,burgers and shakes but still has salads and healthier food on it's menu now for people who don't want to. I don't see how putting a toggle in their app to turn off all these things is such a major change. This is like snapchat "i don't care about android" levels of tech stupidity/laziness
    • stubish 7y ago
      Maybe they validated the autoplay approach and it won on some metric, but I think it is the wrong metric to optimize for. I don't think it the one which counts, monthly renewals. I seriously doubt there are people who stick around because of autoplay, but there are certainly people who quit because of it. Maybe the people who stick around do manage to find the next show to watch a few minutes faster with autoplay, but it isn't worth losing paying customers over.
  • nickjj 7y ago
    > When you ruin your product in effort to game your users, you've already lost. Yep, they do this in all sorts of ways. It feels exactly like you're getting gamed. - Rotated order of shows / movies in all categories - Rotated images for the same shows and movies - It doesn't show you that you've previously watched something while browsing - UI will show "in watch list" label over expiration times so you can't tell when it'll disappear - DVD listings (and even the details page) stopped showing that you already had this movie shipped to you in the past They do everything possible to make it as hard as possible to get a scope of their catalog size and to avoid re-watches. If you've been subbed for 10 years it's sometimes hard to remember you watched something 8 years ago.
• joejerryronnie 7y ago
  The most surprising part of this comment is that you made it through an entire episode of “The I-Land”. I had to turn off episode 1 about 10 minutes in before my brain went into involuntary self-destruct mode.
• magicalhippo 7y ago
  The weird thing about "The I-Land" as well as their other recent fail "Another Life" is that in both cases it's the script that fails horribly. Ok so "Another Life" had a limited budget and most of it went to Katee, but "I-Land" has very high production value. So why didn't they spend more than $5 on the script in either case? edit: The really annoying thing about "I-Land" is that it has an interesting premise at the core. They could have done so much better with that, it physically hurts.
• cwkoss 7y ago
  Disney Plus will show ads to children. I don't want corporations adversarially manipulating my children. Unfortunately piracy is the most ethical option.
  • scarface74 7y ago
    Did you ever watch He-Man, Transformers, or GI-Joe growing up? Disney* is ad free.