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Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
231–240 of 324 posts
Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is probably still a lot more AI/ML work to do at Netflix. For example if you are browsing through standup comedy specials and you see the trailer joke, and you skip to the next one, they know exactly where in the joke that comedian bombed for you. So for other people like you, they can show a different joke from their special, and for you they can build a profile of the kind of humor you like. Then if you start…
It’s an open question if this kind of capability actually has a positive impact on the bottom line.
They must know whether people encouraged to watch more Netflix actually retain Netflix at higher rates. As their prices have gone up I assume this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue.
Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
#233In my opinion Netflix is tech company, but is not part of FAAMG. The reasoning is that the rest of FAAMG does shitton of "other" kind of CS oriented tech (OSes, Databases, Compilers, Heavy ML research) and stuff They're way too big
It's not your opinion that it's not part of FAAMG, that's definitional.
Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's solved, why is the UI for any other content streamer as seamless on my roku as the Netflix one. All the others, I might as well be using a 13 channel rotary dial still. Even Prime sucks, just try rewinding or fast forwarding a minute and see how frustrating that is.
The problem is, for consumers, these minor technical issues don't matter as much as the content on the platforms. Yes, Netflix works much more smoothly than HBO, but we don't choose Netflix over HBO because of the quality of the video streaming app, but for the shows we actually want to watch.
I go to Netflix when I want to watch TV but don’t have anything in particular in mind partially because of the more pleasant UX. I only venture onto the other services when motivated to watch a particular show. I sometimes cancel these memberships after finishing a show because I’m not getting any value.
Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
#235Here's the framework I use: "tech companies" are those where tech still plays a significant factor in the growth of the company such that it's important to an executive level. Example: Google is still a tech company. As much as some might view search as "solved" (just like it was when Google was founded I might add), search continues to get better. Tech still plays a significant role in the actual core business (ie a…
> Netflix isn't a tech company anymore They're still solving some interesting problems like how to watch the same content, in sync, with your friends. Interestingly my gf and I noticed that when we watched NFLX together using a video call to see eachother's faces/commentary our video would skew by noticeable amounts across the span of a movie. (eg even a 0.5% speed difference would give a 3 second skew in 10 minutes,…
Syncplay already solved co-watching ages ago, the only remaining issue is streaming platforms like Netflix holding the content hostage.
Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Netflix isn't a tech company anymore They're still solving some interesting problems like how to watch the same content, in sync, with your friends. Interestingly my gf and I noticed that when we watched NFLX together using a video call to see eachother's faces/commentary our video would skew by noticeable amounts across the span of a movie. (eg even a 0.5% speed difference would give a 3 second skew in 10 minutes,…
Target and Walmart are still solving some interesting problems around online ordering and fulfillment. Are they tech companies now?
I see that is going on with "Metro cash & carry" - while they don't cater to simple consumers but small businesses they start to provide tech services to those small businesses not only supplies.
I can imagine part of Target/Walmart business to be like Amazon so they sell their tech to smaller or local players because they would have loads of knowledge in that specific area of ordering and fulfillment.
It is not counter argument as such - but idea that they could become Amazon competitors in some areas and be tech companies.
Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
#237A fundamentally semantic argument like this seems mostly irrelevant to me. It's like calling Google or Facebook advertising services, which might technically be true but isn't usefully descriptive. Using the author's logic you could call high frequency trading firms tech companies instead of financial services. If his semantics here were correct one might wonder why nobody calls HFTs tech companies. The author ignores the more complicated side of the questions about what makes a company a "tech company" — mushy concepts like internal corporate culture, sources of talent, and participation in the broader tech "ecosystem".
Also the idea that Netflix's content strategy is cleanly separable from its tech is totally bogus. Netflix uses some sophisticated tech to decide what content to produce and also has a huge amount of in-house technology involved in the actual production of content.
Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
#238"Tech company" is a label that is rapidly outliving its utility. We probably need another name for the small segment of the industry that is producing technology as its product.
Looking forward, I'm guessing "tech job" is another label whose days are numbered. Already, "I work in tech" is a fairly nondescriptive phrase. It's the new "I work with a pencil."
Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
#239Here's the framework I use: "tech companies" are those where tech still plays a significant factor in the growth of the company such that it's important to an executive level. Example: Google is still a tech company. As much as some might view search as "solved" (just like it was when Google was founded I might add), search continues to get better. Tech still plays a significant role in the actual core business (ie a…
One core problem Netflix is currently trying to solve with tech is "how do we produce hundreds of series/movies concurrently with predictable budgets and predictable performance." They want to be a tech and data-driven studio.
Doesn't every large mature company basically try to solve this problem, namely predictable revenues and expenses?
Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It didn't matter what their UX or uptime was or how smooth their video codecs, they didn't have enough content I wanted to watch. Netflix has developed a novel data system (as evidenced by papermill) that is likely responsible for countless decisions that manifested the content which brought you back. I don't know first hand but I suspect data is integrated into their everyday processes in ways most companies can't…
And Disney/Pixar is constantly pushing the bleeding edge of computer animation and CGI special effects. Is Disney a technology company?
Disney's research divisions do a lot of really cool stuff: