Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#131

Post by stingraycharles » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:36 AM UTC

dmode wrote: post #130

I think the market overreacted a bit. They have been growing for so many years, there is bound to be a quarter here and there where growth stalls. Having said that, I feel Netflix's biggest problem is content discovery. They have the best multilingual content that can be consumed globally like Narcos and Sacred Games. Yet they make it really hard to find such content. Their categorization is weird and not easily unde…

The market reacted because it’s priced for perfection. Any bump in the road will cause a reaction. Its PE was at 300 which is pretty insane.

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#132

Post by thirdsun » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 5:58 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #62

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another anecdote: I’d have cancelled Netflix a while ago if my family wasn’t using it. Their UX has been on a steady decline for me: - Audio previews make it so I never want to browse for what to watch next. I hate having to fumble with my tv/home theatre remote because of this. - If you leave it hanging, the previews count towards a watch! Wow. God help you if you wanna make some popcorn. - Their sorts are always sh…

I share your observations, but wanted to add the their browsing system is just bonkers. Discovery is impossible — imo they overoptimize for engagement and make it hard to explore the catalog. I find out about many new shows via PR placements in newspapers.

And it's not just the subpar discovery features. It's the combination of awful discovery and their abysmal recommendation engine that renders exploration impossible. When will those engines understand that I'm not interested in every mediocre drug/crime/sports/[any other broad topic] documentary just because I watched this one exceptionally good documentary that happened to deal with the topic Netflix now decides to push down my throat?

I want outstanding content regardless of topic and these days Netflix seems to be delivering less of that or at the very least makes it incredibly hard to find in a sea of mediocre content.

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#133

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 6:00 AM UTC

wgerard wrote: post #8

Total anecdote: Kinda sucks when shows leave Netflix and don't get replaced; half the appeal of Netflix is the ability to quickly switch between Futurama and Always Sunny, and more importantly to be able to watch those shows on a platform that doesn't completely suck (FX's app has got to be one of the worst apps I've ever used). When "Parts Unknown" was about to leave Netflix, I really questioned whether it was worth…

Agreed. Recently, Netflix reminded me why ultimately, torrents are simply superior.

You see, I initially subscribed to Netflix because it had most of Star Trek on it - all the TV shows + many (I think most) of the movies. The ability to watch an episode every now and then was what kept me subscribed even through the periods I couldn't find anything else interesting there. Now, recently came a time I actually wanted to watch a Star Trek movie I loved ("Generations"). I looked for it, but it was nowhere to be found. Just gone. So was "First Contact". So were all the others (except the bastardizations of JJ Abrams). This prompted me to ask, what other (non-Trek) movies and series I loved and even watched on Netflix are still available? Turns out, the list of movies and series has been gradually decreasing behind my back. A lot of the interesting things I watched on Netflix, that I used as an argument to recommend Netflix to friends, are simply gone.

Torrents cause a PITA with storage management, but have this one lovely feature - once a file is on your hard drive, it stays there. And this generalizes to SaaS vs. local software and files, too.

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#134

Post by dunpeal » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 6:00 AM UTC

jogjayr wrote: post #117

dunpeal wrote: post #106

An interesting question for me is whether Netflix will also experience a wave of talent departures as an additional result of this stock plunge. Netflix is competing for talent as a FAANG outfit, and as such much of the value they provide to their employees depends on their RSUs. This works great as long as stock price is on a steep rise, as has generally been the case for FAANG over the past several years. Now that…

Netflix doesn't force employees to take RSUs. Every employee has the option to take anywhere from 0-100% of their compensation in cash. [1] This was also my experience. 1. https://www.quora.com/How-does-Netflix-compensate-its-employ...

It's nice that employees have a choice, but presumably some of them did choose to take stock (it would be pretty bad if none of them did), and they will see a reduction in their comp as a result of this plunge.

Furthermore, the link you provided also states that since 2015, there's a compensation factor that is non-voluntary and pegged to the price of the stock, so everyone will see a reduction, though some more than others.

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#135

Post by thisisit » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 6:15 AM UTC

axaxs wrote: post #11

Netflix is in a weird position. Early on I loved it, but over time it seems down to a few good originals and a lot of bad ones, and third rate third party content. I haven't cancelled yet but probably will, as I rarely use it. I don't blame Netflix for this necessarily, but it has made it's consumer value much weaker. Internationally, there are much cheaper options typically. As an aside, their taking of a political…

Nowadays every media company wants their own streaming service. That means Netflix has to scramble for content. And when starting out they were careful in selecting projects. But once they got a taste for success they have been green-lighting projects left and right. But, they are not going to select winners every time. Stuff like Bright, the Will Smith movie, relied solely on the star power.

It will be interesting to see if Netflix imposes some kind quality bar to ensure things don't go even worse.

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#136

Post by calvinbhai » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 6:16 AM UTC

dmode wrote: post #130

I think the market overreacted a bit. They have been growing for so many years, there is bound to be a quarter here and there where growth stalls. Having said that, I feel Netflix's biggest problem is content discovery. They have the best multilingual content that can be consumed globally like Narcos and Sacred Games. Yet they make it really hard to find such content. Their categorization is weird and not easily unde…

That is so true!

Netflix has so many Indian language movies, and yet it is so difficult to search content just by the language or sub-region (South Indian)

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#137

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 6:17 AM UTC

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #26

wgerard wrote: post #8

Total anecdote: Kinda sucks when shows leave Netflix and don't get replaced; half the appeal of Netflix is the ability to quickly switch between Futurama and Always Sunny, and more importantly to be able to watch those shows on a platform that doesn't completely suck (FX's app has got to be one of the worst apps I've ever used). When "Parts Unknown" was about to leave Netflix, I really questioned whether it was worth…

Another anecdote: I’d have cancelled Netflix a while ago if my family wasn’t using it. Their UX has been on a steady decline for me: - Audio previews make it so I never want to browse for what to watch next. I hate having to fumble with my tv/home theatre remote because of this. - If you leave it hanging, the previews count towards a watch! Wow. God help you if you wanna make some popcorn. - Their sorts are always sh…

> data seems to rule all there

Data is only part of the equation. The other part is what you look at, and yet another is what you aim for. The data might tell them that bilingual users are not being properly accommodated by the service (or may not tell that - after all, in what way are you giving this feedback that would also show up on Netflix's surveillance panels?) - but then the business people will say that already subscribed users are less important than getting new subscriptions, and this problem will have to wait.

EDIT:

> Their UX has been on a steady decline for me

Agreed. It's less clear, and it seems to be optimized for Internet equivalent of channel hopping. For people who know exactly what they're searching for, Netflix becomes more and more difficult to use.

Also - and this really annoys me - their UI changes tend to make the interface heavier each iteration. It's not a problem when I use it on my desktop, but then sometimes I'd like to watch a movie on a tablet (e.g. when in a hotel), and then I have to face the absolutely ridiculous situation, in which a full-HD movie seems to cause smaller load on my device than the interface to select what to watch.

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#138

Post by dukes_haven » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 6:21 AM UTC

Sebguer wrote: post #22

dukes_haven wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix would be cheaper in India too but you have to take into account that not everyone can speak English there

Not only does this statement not make any clear sense (why does English speaking #s affect price of the service?) but India has the second largest English speaking population in the world.

Sure, but if you go to India right now I can assure you that you wouldn't be able to have a decent conversation with almost anyone not educated from a decent college, Im not sure what the degree of proficiency is from that figure you got over there but the extent of most peoples English would be pointing and using one or two relevant words, not making complete coherent sentences. Back to my original comment this is the reason why people in India dont subscribe to netflix, its a killer deal and less expensive than what they pay for cable (plus they can watch it on their laptop so - the cost of the TV too) but I guess they wouldn't be able to follow the storyline as clearly.

And about that not making sense, I meant that it would be cheaper than paying for cable TV

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#139

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 6:27 AM UTC

FridgeSeal wrote: post #102

scrooched_moose wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was completely out of stuff to watch about a month ago. No matter what I did I could only get the same ~100 shows and movies that I'd either already watched or had no interest in. On a whim I switched over to my step father's profile - holy shit! There were at least 15 movies I wanted to watch that I absolutely could not get to show up on my profile without searching by name. I found a handful more on other family…

And herein lies the issue with filtering/tailoring based on what you've watched/liked before: it can never 'escape' and give you something different that you might actually really like. I don't know how many good titles I discovered browsing random titles in video stores back in the day.

And it would be so simple to solve. Prepare a tailored list. Instead of using it on all available space, fill only 90% of the space with items from the list. Fill remaining 10% with random items that do not belong to that list.

Re: Netflix shares decline after reporting disappointing subscriber growth

#140

Post by tscs37 » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 6:28 AM UTC

scrooched_moose wrote: post #91

Spooky23 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I share your observations, but wanted to add the their browsing system is just bonkers. Discovery is impossible — imo they overoptimize for engagement and make it hard to explore the catalog. I find out about many new shows via PR placements in newspapers.

I was completely out of stuff to watch about a month ago. No matter what I did I could only get the same ~100 shows and movies that I'd either already watched or had no interest in. On a whim I switched over to my step father's profile - holy shit! There were at least 15 movies I wanted to watch that I absolutely could not get to show up on my profile without searching by name. I found a handful more on other family…

I think that could be solved by having a button to mark something as watched, removing it from recommendations and the catalog other than the list of things you watched.

You could hide episodes you've seen or entire seasons up to entire shows. Would fix a lot of the issues I'm having.