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Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

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Re: Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

#41
post #4

I don't necessarily agree with this. If I want to watch well produced online content, I do not think Youtube.com. I do think that Netflix and amazon Prime video have "traditional" studio created content that has high production value. That said, I watch youtube and Netflix almost equally, but for different reasons. Youtube is great for short videos, interviews and niche interest. IF I want to watch scripted drama lik…

There's plenty of content on YouTube that's at the highest level of professional production. It's 0.01% of what's on YouTube, compared to 100% of what's on Netflix, so you will not find it by just going to YouTube.com and clicking random links... but there's still many human lifetimes of high-end content on YouTube.

Re: Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

#42
post #41
post #4

I don't necessarily agree with this. If I want to watch well produced online content, I do not think Youtube.com. I do think that Netflix and amazon Prime video have "traditional" studio created content that has high production value. That said, I watch youtube and Netflix almost equally, but for different reasons. Youtube is great for short videos, interviews and niche interest. IF I want to watch scripted drama lik…

There's plenty of content on YouTube that's at the highest level of professional production. It's 0.01% of what's on YouTube, compared to 100% of what's on Netflix, so you will not find it by just going to YouTube.com and clicking random links... but there's still many human lifetimes of high-end content on YouTube.

Fair point. I think Captain Disillusion is a good example of this, his production value is extremely high with regards to visual effects for what is a fairly niche subject matter.

Re: Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

#43
post #4

I don't necessarily agree with this. If I want to watch well produced online content, I do not think Youtube.com. I do think that Netflix and amazon Prime video have "traditional" studio created content that has high production value. That said, I watch youtube and Netflix almost equally, but for different reasons. Youtube is great for short videos, interviews and niche interest. IF I want to watch scripted drama lik…

They are competitors - for your eyeballs. Just because they don't provide precisely the same service doesn't make them non-competitors.

Youtube competes with Netflix the same way your shower length preference competes with Netflix. The disconcerting (if not narcissistic) elephant in the room being that service providers are viewing any activities that cause you to spend time away from their service as "competition" at all.

Re: Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

#44
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of content on YouTube that's at the highest level of professional production. It's 0.01% of what's on YouTube, compared to 100% of what's on Netflix, so you will not find it by just going to YouTube.com and clicking random links... but there's still many human lifetimes of high-end content on YouTube.

Fair point. I think Captain Disillusion is a good example of this, his production value is extremely high with regards to visual effects for what is a fairly niche subject matter.

Still, imagine if he got a Netflix deal(how awesome would that be), the production value would go up

Re: Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

#45
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of content on YouTube that's at the highest level of professional production. It's 0.01% of what's on YouTube, compared to 100% of what's on Netflix, so you will not find it by just going to YouTube.com and clicking random links... but there's still many human lifetimes of high-end content on YouTube.

Fair point. I think Captain Disillusion is a good example of this, his production value is extremely high with regards to visual effects for what is a fairly niche subject matter.

Captain Disillusion is nowhere near the quality of a Netflix show. I love the guy and support him on Patreon, but at the end of the day, it’s a garage version of myth busters. It still has that “youtuby” feel of a guy doing a thing in his spare time.

The budget is incredibly low; look at his Patreon. Compare this to the millions of dollars that go into a film considered “low budget”.

If CD is YouTube’s high quality content, then that is exactly the point GP was making.

Re: Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

#46
post #38
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again though, Netflix is not there to grab a user's attention, Netflix is there to grab a user's money. We shouldn't conflate these two base motivations. If netflix gets you to pay the monthly fee, while at the same time you only use a quarter of the bandwidth of most other netflix users... well, I'd imagine that's a win for netflix. Again, we'd need more of Netflix' internal data, but I wouldn't be surprised if a fu…

Bandwidth is cheap, when the users are actually paying customers. Churn, on the other hand is very expensive. I bet Netflix prefers heavy users over those who watch two movies a month: the latter people are much more likely to cancel the service.

It's been said before, but we'd need the internal data regarding viewing patterns, license fees (which are per user in many cases), bandwidth costs, etc etc, but I'd take your proposed wager. Without hesitation. I can think of very few scenarios where the amalgamation of these per user costs is lower for a heavy user. (Not saying it can't happen, just saying based on what I know, I'd feel pretty confident betting that it doesn't happen.) Additionally, throwing in what I know about consumer behavioral patterns, I'd wager even their light users are extremely unlikely to cancel Netflix.

Re: Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

#48
post #16

I get disgusted by thinking why does Netflix want people to not sleep. Why auto-play in 5 sec? Isn't this morally wrong, like dangling cocaine in front of a drug addict. I agree that people have free will but designing products so that people waste days just watching TV is very very sad IMHO.

> I get disgusted by thinking why does Netflix want people to not sleep. Why auto-play in 5 sec?

It's like linear TV. No one complains about the "non-stop" aspect there.

Re: Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

#49
post #41
post #4

I don't necessarily agree with this. If I want to watch well produced online content, I do not think Youtube.com. I do think that Netflix and amazon Prime video have "traditional" studio created content that has high production value. That said, I watch youtube and Netflix almost equally, but for different reasons. Youtube is great for short videos, interviews and niche interest. IF I want to watch scripted drama lik…

There's plenty of content on YouTube that's at the highest level of professional production. It's 0.01% of what's on YouTube, compared to 100% of what's on Netflix, so you will not find it by just going to YouTube.com and clicking random links... but there's still many human lifetimes of high-end content on YouTube.

True. I can account for India here. There are some channels which nake scripted web series releasing 1 episode per week. Some of them even have 1-2 seasons . Mostly 5 episodes. And they are really popular among youngsters. Basically,these shows touch upon common middle class family relatable stuff,or college youngsters themed series. Most of them have a different sponsor each time. Sometimes its a car company (for a road trip based series),or a yoghurt brand, once Xiaomi was also a sponsor. And they hire veteran actors who are quite popular on traditional TV soap operas. But, i do feel that Youtube hasn't done enough for them. Personally i love Youtube for its educational content.

Re: Netflix’s biggest competition isn’t sleep, it’s YouTube

#50
post #4

I don't necessarily agree with this. If I want to watch well produced online content, I do not think Youtube.com. I do think that Netflix and amazon Prime video have "traditional" studio created content that has high production value. That said, I watch youtube and Netflix almost equally, but for different reasons. Youtube is great for short videos, interviews and niche interest. IF I want to watch scripted drama lik…

> IF I want to watch scripted drama like NARCOS, I can't find anything close to that on Youtube

If you step outside of the narrow US/English speaking world this isn't the case.

Here's episode 92 of a popular hour-long scripted family show from Vietnam: https://youtu.be/rqdqn5Rfx6w

You can see that it has 5.7 million views within 5 days of release. That's more viewers than, say, Daredevil gets.

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