4 ms·

Netflix's value proposition is no longer what it was even a decade ago. Competitors and alternatives to 'netflix-&-chill' exist at lower price points. I'm not

Netflix's value proposition is no longer what it was even a decade ago. Competitors and alternatives to 'netflix-&-chill' exist at lower price points. I'm not sure why folks are still giving Netflix money.

wordofx 2y ago
We give money because they still have good value proposition.
- candiddevmike 2y ago
  Or we forget to cancel
  - mardifoufs 2y ago
    Does Netflix still have that pretty cool feature where they paused your subscription if you didn't use it for a few months? It was very cool seeing it happen when I had my Netflix account!
    - cgriswald 2y ago
      I think most of these services should just not charge you if, during any given payment period, you don't use the service. If I go to the trouble of canceling I'm likely not coming back; especially since the friction for re-subscribing is higher than just logging in and it automatically being 'unpaused'. I'm also more likely to cancel a service if I haven't used it for three months and see its cost me $60 just to have.
      - attentive 2y ago
        Back in dvd shipping era I found myself with netflix subscription that I didn't use for a very very long time. I asked if they can give me some credits or discounts or anything really. The answer was no. They never got another cent from me since.
    - m463 2y ago
      they stopped my neflix streaming, because I didn't use it as much. And just recently they stopped my dvd service because there's no market for people like me. 9I was actively using - it had access to all the good movies) I can't help but think of temple grandin and comfortably guiding cattle to the "endgame" https://www.grandin.com/design/curved.handling.facilities.html https://www.grandin.com/design/curved.handling.facilities.ht...
djbusby 2y ago
Bundled w/T-Mobile
Mark-coleman-5 2y ago
[flagged]
XorNot 2y ago
Netflix feels like they made a very bad bet that their technology was some sort of leading advantage (which was silly because if BitTorrent exists then fairly obviously...no it wasn't).
- nomel 2y ago
  It has the advantage over torrent that you don’t have to hide yourself behind a VPNs to keep from getting sued for illegal doings.
  - XorNot 2y ago
    The point is that if an ad hoc distributed network of unfunded peers can do it, the barrier to entry is not that high for any well funded major enterprise which wants a slice of the pie. Basically I'd be curious to know if they felt internally that they'd transition to a service provider or something if they had to.
    - nomel 2y ago
      The plethora of streaming services suggest you’re correct in the barrier not being that high.
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    On other hand you needed VPN to get interesting content... So quite a wash, I don't know where they are now with geoblocking.
  - mitthrowaway2 2y ago
    That's not a technology moat, that's a copyright moat.
slothtrop 2y ago
Presumably by competitors and alternatives, you aren't strictly referring to streaming platforms. What of it? People still want to stream film and tv, and among legal platforms Netflix is still tops.
geodel 2y ago
Could be that they don't use internet so they have no idea how to get those cheaper options.
dangus 2y ago
I agree that there are competitors but I think the obvious answer is that Netflix has content. There is a laundry list of specific shows that have a wide following on Netflix. Here’s a list of 100 critically acclaimed ones: https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-netflix-shows-and-movies-to-binge-watch-now/ https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-netflix-show... They’re starting to do live sports as well, like NFL games. I would say that all the major streaming services are gradually becoming roughly equal.

wordofx 2y ago

We give money because they still have good value proposition.

candiddevmike 2y ago
Or we forget to cancel
- mardifoufs 2y ago
  Does Netflix still have that pretty cool feature where they paused your subscription if you didn't use it for a few months? It was very cool seeing it happen when I had my Netflix account!
  - cgriswald 2y ago
    I think most of these services should just not charge you if, during any given payment period, you don't use the service. If I go to the trouble of canceling I'm likely not coming back; especially since the friction for re-subscribing is higher than just logging in and it automatically being 'unpaused'. I'm also more likely to cancel a service if I haven't used it for three months and see its cost me $60 just to have.
    - attentive 2y ago
      Back in dvd shipping era I found myself with netflix subscription that I didn't use for a very very long time. I asked if they can give me some credits or discounts or anything really. The answer was no. They never got another cent from me since.
  - m463 2y ago
    they stopped my neflix streaming, because I didn't use it as much. And just recently they stopped my dvd service because there's no market for people like me. 9I was actively using - it had access to all the good movies) I can't help but think of temple grandin and comfortably guiding cattle to the "endgame" https://www.grandin.com/design/curved.handling.facilities.html https://www.grandin.com/design/curved.handling.facilities.ht...

djbusby 2y ago

Bundled w/T-Mobile

Mark-coleman-5 2y ago

[flagged]

XorNot 2y ago

Netflix feels like they made a very bad bet that their technology was some sort of leading advantage (which was silly because if BitTorrent exists then fairly obviously...no it wasn't).

nomel 2y ago
It has the advantage over torrent that you don’t have to hide yourself behind a VPNs to keep from getting sued for illegal doings.
- XorNot 2y ago
  The point is that if an ad hoc distributed network of unfunded peers can do it, the barrier to entry is not that high for any well funded major enterprise which wants a slice of the pie. Basically I'd be curious to know if they felt internally that they'd transition to a service provider or something if they had to.
  - nomel 2y ago
    The plethora of streaming services suggest you’re correct in the barrier not being that high.
- Ekaros 2y ago
  On other hand you needed VPN to get interesting content... So quite a wash, I don't know where they are now with geoblocking.
- mitthrowaway2 2y ago
  That's not a technology moat, that's a copyright moat.

slothtrop 2y ago

Presumably by competitors and alternatives, you aren't strictly referring to streaming platforms. What of it? People still want to stream film and tv, and among legal platforms Netflix is still tops.

geodel 2y ago

Could be that they don't use internet so they have no idea how to get those cheaper options.

dangus 2y ago

I agree that there are competitors but I think the obvious answer is that Netflix has content. There is a laundry list of specific shows that have a wide following on Netflix. Here’s a list of 100 critically acclaimed ones: https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-netflix-shows-and-movies-to-binge-watch-now/ https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-netflix-show... They’re starting to do live sports as well, like NFL games. I would say that all the major streaming services are gradually becoming roughly equal.