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This is attributing much more coherence to Netflix's strategy than could be reasonably assumed. Netflix is still trying to figure out what it is. I think their
by andrewla 5y ago
This is attributing much more coherence to Netflix's strategy than could be reasonably assumed.
Netflix is still trying to figure out what it is. I think their growth post-DVD was based on the assumption that they would be the clearinghouse for all video content; with Hulu and the further balkanization of the video space, it was clear that this was not going to happen; that Netflix was destined to be one provider among many, and that their sources of content would start to dry up as other companies decided that the streaming and application and appliances were commodity technology that they could just brand in-house.
The quality of the UI of Netflix is terrible, but everyone else is so much worse that for the moment they stand out. And they never managed to get on the bandwagon of selling add-on packages like Hulu and Amazon did (although both of those products have such abysmal UX that you gain very little over using the respective native apps).
So now they're continuing to play up the original content game, which appears to be where the industry in general is headed, because the Paramount Consent Decree is so dead that it can't even hear our prayers.
They are a tech company insofar as they have invested heavily in the tech and as a result have the most reliable and usable platform (and the most research into recommendations), but the gap between Netflix and commodity streaming is narrow enough now that their edge in the technology space is gone. So they're basically a studio/theater at this point, like everyone else in the space. The only difference between Disney and Netflix is that Netflix doesn't have a theme park (yet!).
- btmiller 5y agoThis was only part of your comment, but I’m very happy with my Apple TV purchase (especially now with the “fixed” remote). The hardware has always been sufficiently fast which enables app devs to present the best version of their UIs. Though this isn’t a silver bullet (see the Prime Video app), the same APIs many devs are used to on iOS do enable a delightful experience (insofar as delightful = objectively better than the experiences on alternative hardware). (Woof, so many caveats here!)
- aidenn0 5y ago> based on the assumption that they would be the clearinghouse for all video content Unless they pivoted at lightning speed, I don't think this is true. When I saw the online subscriptions start for Netflix, I, some random person on the street, observed that the moment a white-box streaming service is created, all of the content-owners will have zero incentive to put their content on Netflix. If I could think of this, then so could Netflix, and sure enough we started seeing netflix buying and producing content of their own pretty quickly.