
Ask HN: Does Netflix Have a Future? - keiferski
With every other entertainment company pulling content and starting their own streaming service, what does Netflix have to stay competitive?<p>I have personally found their original content to be 90% mediocre, especially compared to HBO&#x2F;ShowTime&#x2F;etc. Do you see them making better content in the future, or sticking to this model of frequent low-quality shows?
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bruce511
Yes, I think Netflix survives, and prospers, for a number of reasons;

A) not "every other entertainment company" is starting, or can sell, a
streaming business.

At one end of the scale you have Disney, with a huge catalog of stuff you've
already seen. At the other end you have Apple with a handful of shows that you
can watch all of in a single month.

But there are lots and lots of long-tail entertainers who will ultimately sell
their work to a provider. Which brings us to B)

B) content costs money. And Netflix is out-spending the others. Which they can
afford to do because they have the larger income from this already.

Of course there will be multiple platforms going forward, but most people will
consolidate to 2 or 3 services. And for most people it'll be Netflix plus 1 or
2 others.

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tomrod
Netflix will have to adjust their business model in order to stay competitive.

They sowed the seeds of that years ago when they started building their own
content -- Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and so forth.

They could license their technology to the other streaming services for IP
revenue.

They could start advertising.

They could branch into AR/VR, music services, data cataloging, more
interactive content, and so forth.

They can continue their international push.

They could sell their engineering services as a consultancy (Chaos Monkey!).
They could build 5G-enabled multimedia content. So on and so forth.

In short, even though their primary market is now being sucessfully
encroached, they have enough of the FAANGM knowledge capital to pivot
profoundly. I look forward to seeing what Reed Hastings does next.

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PaulHoule
They own a lot of content. Netflix could sell out to a media company or some
other company that wants to become a media company.

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unlinked_dll
I think when the data tells them that their strategy isn't effective at
decreasing churn they'll pivot to a different one, and they'll do it faster
than pretty much any other company in the space is able to. And if the data
tells them that strategy isn't great, they'll pivot again.

IMO people underestimate the power of being a tech company that spends on
media versus a media company that spends on tech.

I also think they're better suited to international content development and
distribution, which has always been tricky for Hollywood. Part of that is
technology, part of it is organizational.

~~~
JasonHummguide
" the power of being a tech company that spends on media versus a media
company that spends on tech "

Amen!.

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muzani
Remarkably few companies die of innovation. People have subscribed to Netflix.
It solves the problem of having something to do when lazy. People won't really
switch to watch Game of Thrones or Simpsons if they can still marathon Friends
for years. I've been marathoning Adventure Time with my kids since last year,
and even though it's the only thing I watch on Netflix, it's still a better
deal than buying whole 10 seasons.

It'll probably be the WhatsApp effect - everyone knows it's inferior and play
with changing but it's just too much effort to. Netflix has some lock in
because people share their accounts with family members or even "family" they
just met online, and people are hesitant to unsubscribe.

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tcbasche
> I have personally found their original content to be 90% mediocre

Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think personal preference is really
an indicator of the success of a company. Especially not one as influential or
'cultural' as Netflix.

It's like when people on Hackernews claim that Google is going downhill and
will be 'dead' soon just because they don't like their search results.

~~~
keiferski
> Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think personal preference is
> really an indicator of the success of a company. Especially not one as
> influential or 'cultural' as Netflix.

This is not just my opinion. Most of their original content has been poorly
reviewed by most media publications and on Reddit/etc.

> It's like when people on Hackernews claim that Google is going downhill and
> will be 'dead' soon just because they don't like their search results.

Dead soon, maybe not. But if the quality of a company's primary product starts
to slide, then yeah, it's not a good sign. That is how business works.

