

Netflix Regains 600,000 U.S. Subscribers - gammarator
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/01/25/business/AP-US-Earns-Netflix.html

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dasil003
I bought Netflix @ $75 last year. It was the first time I ever bought stock,
but I had to do it out of sheer confidence.

> _"You are never as smart or dumb as they say," Hastings said in a Wednesday
> interview._

This is exactly why I bought. Everybody and their mother was jumping all over
themselves to talk about how stupid Netflix was. I figured the stock was
pummeled about as low as it could go because at the end of the day Netflix has
amazing infrastructure and product assets (I say this as a direct competitor).
It's certainly the case that they are being squeezed mercilessly between price
expectations of customers and profit expectations of the content cartels, but
at the same time, Internet streaming is an irresistible force and no one is
positioned better to capitalize on it than Netflix.

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kokey
That's generally a good strategy for beating the crowd at speculating. The
problem is knowing when you are following or beating the crowd. The other
problem is timing it right. Normally when 'everyone knows' that tech stock,
property, or gold is a good investment, it's not a good time to invest in it.

~~~
onemoreact
Yea, I have been looking into shorting gold for a while now, but you really
need to get the timing right to do that. It went from 1600 to 1900 and back to
1600 in the fall but there is so much volatility it's impossible to really
know the market.

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dcurtis
Fun fact: Netflix now has almost the same number of subscribers as Comcast
(21.67 million versus 22.4 million for Comcast).

I find that amazing, because it means Netflix has the same distribution power
as a major cable TV provider.

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AgentConundrum
Distribution power, maybe, but they're probably still significantly
disadvantaged financially, since $8/mo is considerably less than _anybody_
(who has cable) pays for cable.

I was looking into this just last night, actually. I'm not with Comcast, I'm
not even American actually, but I wanted to add a couple channels to our
account and I went looking at pricing. For the basic crappy channels - the
first 20 or so, I think - I was $25. Our roommate, by which I mean by would-be
brother-in-law, controls the account so I don't know how much it all comes to,
but looking at the different packages, I'd say it's got to be at least
$80-100, not factoring in any discounts for bundling with internet and all
that.

~~~
chaostheory
> Distribution power, maybe, but they're probably still significantly
> disadvantaged financially, since $8/mo is considerably less than anybody
> (who has cable) pays for cable.

Not entirely true. I'm part of a growing number of people that have cable tv
who don't actually use cable tv. Let me explain. Once I explained to Comcast
that my household no longer watches cable tv and that I'd rather spend the
money I used to spend on cable tv for faster internet (up to 50 mbs). They in
turn explained to me that if I have super basic cable plan for $9.99 / month,
they would give me a $15 discount off my entire monthly bill. So for a $5
monthly discount, Comcast gets to keep me as a ghost cable tv subscriber.

~~~
slig
It seems they really don't want to start a trend of "people that don't have
cable tv".

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sudonim
I saw this with Verizon fios too. It's $85 for 25mbps Internet service. It's
$75 if I get the same thing bundled with tv service.

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bambax
Netflix is magic. It has the only recommendation engine that actually works.
I'm a streaming subscriber, and the only problem is their somewhat limited
catalog: many movies I look for are only available on DVD. There are very few
recent releases.

But their catalog will inevitably expand.

It's incredible how one comes to love something that works so consistently and
dependably.

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AgentConundrum
> _It has the only recommendation engine that actually works._

I wish it let you split out recommendations based on users, with the option of
"recommended for the whole account." I like Sci-Fi, and I've watched a fair
amount of it on my Netflix account, including 10/11 Star Trek movies, but the
last time I went into the Sci-Fi section, it was recommending me random kids
shows and things I'd clearly not like.

This is because my girlfriend uses it a lot and has watched a lot of older,
especially teen (nostalgia), shows. To quote from A Christmas Story, Netflix
"labor[s] under the delusion that I [am] not only perpetually 4 years old, but
also a girl."

Not knocking their engine, just a random anecdote.

Didn't Netflix run a competition once for people to come up with a better
recommendation engine a while ago? Maybe that's why it's so good.
Crowdsourcing.

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brador
Are you honestly expecting the algorithm to magically know if it is you or
your children watching the movie?

They advise against sharing accounts. I understand this is not really
enforcable and no one really cares, but it's the only way the recommendation
engine works well.

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alttag
So it's in the customer's best interest to have a separate account for the
four-year-old?

If they tried to suggest it, I'd think they're off their collective rockers.

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brador
Well, yes, if they want to use the recommendation system as it is intended,
then yes. It's how the thing works, it recommends based on what has been
viewed before...it's not magic guys.

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jpiasetz
Would be interesting to know how many returned vs. how many of those are new
and of the returning how many left due to the price increase.

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thomasgerbe
_sigh_

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3512413>

~~~
markerdmann
It's so easy for great links to come and go on the new page without even
getting a single vote. Everyone, make sure to browse the new page and vote up
good links! It's your civic duty.

~~~
nodata
Also titles are important! Think of good titles!

~~~
ars
Having 4 friends helps too. Get them to vote up your story (simultaneously!!)
so that it goes on the front page even for a few minutes. After that, if it's
any good, it'll be self-sustaining. (If not, having those friends won't help
much - it'll fall off if it doesn't keep getting votes from other people who
think it's valuable.)

I never actually done this, but I see it all the time.

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kbutler
We signed up again. Where our previous plan was "Keep a Netflix subscription
and tell our friends about it", our current mode is, "This is the cheapest way
to watch the existing episodes of TV series _____, then we'll cancel again."

