Netflix is not a tech company (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#241

Post by makeitdouble » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:31 PM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #175

musingsole wrote: post #150

Earlier 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?

As much as I am not a fan of Disney, I think they are.

Even outside of movies they have significant care to innovate and push the boundaries, for instance in theme park animatronics or toys in general.

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#242

Post by sfink » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:32 PM UTC

abvdasker wrote: post #237

A 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 ignore…

I think it makes sense to an analyst. Is the company's success determined more by {TV,advertising,healthcare,...} concerns or by tech concerns?

Which is a very different question from "if I like to do X, where should I try to work?" It's closer to "what is the company's largest expense" but that's still different.

Different categorization schemes for different purposes.

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#243

Post by AStrangeMorrow » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:33 PM UTC

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #209

cletus wrote: post #148

Here'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…

> search continues to get better Many here would dispute this claim. However, it may be that SEO spam has caught up and we're merely at the old equilibrium rather than worse than before the peak of Google usefulness.

This might be very anecdotal, but in my case, outside of tech/programming topics, I feel like google results are getting more and more generic. For example, a while back I had some changes in my life and had to fill lots of paperwork. I had various administrative issues regarding 2/3 specific forms. When I searched for people that ran into these issues, I found many helpful link/forums etc... Fast forward these past few months, had to fill the same forms and ran into some of the same issues. But now and all I am finding is stuff like links to the forms, links to the administration websites, links to how to fill the form and so on. Maybe it is a SEO issue, but overall I feel like I am struggling more and more to get useful search results to very specific questions. But then again, sample size of 1.

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#244

Post by sfink » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:34 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #6

While you can make that argument today, Netflix as a company is 24 years old. It got to its current position not by spending $15B/yr on original content (which it can afford to do now) but purely based on a superior and novel tech experience for its users. Of course eventually all discussions of this nature devolve into the intricate definition of "tech company", and in the absence of one that is agreed upon, bringin…

Right. It started as a shipping service company that specialized exclusively in DVDs.

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#245

Post by Msw242 » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:49 PM UTC

ativzzz wrote: post #168

coding123 wrote: post #163

Earlier 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 disagree. Netflix is a dramatically more polished experience. I'm not even going to touch channel specific libraries like peacock because hbomax/Hulu are already painful enough.

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#246

Post by geodel » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

Besides all the great comments here about Netflix being not a tech company. I will add that most of Netflix tech blogs lately are just describing integrating a bunch of Open source Apache/Spring Framework software.

The "technical challenges" they are facing are similar to those Enterprisey IT developers face when they could not wrap their head around Kludgy Java framework APIs.

Also If I look at Netflix OSS at github it gives that feeling of below average enterprise Java software with deeply nested packages with probably 5 percent of meat and 95 percent scaffolding / config around it.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn if Netflix's famed extensive systems monitoring is not because they are on cutting edge but that million instances of half-assed Java microservices do need endless monitoring just for standard http/database request processing.

So yeah, Netflix is not tech company in many meanings of tech.

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#247

Post by jboy55 » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

ativzzz wrote: post #168

coding123 wrote: post #163

Earlier 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.

As someone who seemingly in the past 6 months has subscribed to them all. The worst technically (Hulu on Android TV), has got the most interesting content, and has just passed Netflix as my go-to streaming channel. HBO, Prime, Disc+, Hulu, Vudu, Apple TV, they might as well use the same software.

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#248

Post by hintymad » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

In a way Netflix is a productivity company. They relentlessly improve productivity in decision making, in building device ecosystems, in lowering streaming cost, in managing streaming assets... Cool technologies emerge from such endeavor.

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#249

Post by lliamander » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:59 PM UTC

cletus wrote: post #148

Here'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…

I distinguish between tech companies like Adobe, Microsoft and Intel, and tech-enabled companies like Netflix, Amazon (the store part, at least) Facebook. The former actually sells technology (hardware or software) whereas the latter uses technology as a strategic tool in selling something else.

Re: Netflix is not a tech company (2019)

#250

Post by charwalker » Tue, Sep 07, 2021, 7:59 PM UTC

maerF0x0 wrote: post #205

cletus wrote: post #148

Here'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,…

Plex has offered a watch together solution which seems to work really well for my users. I'm not sure if that is a unique bit of code Netflix put together or one of many decent solutions. I'd guess they need theirs to be the fastest and most efficient though.