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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

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just amazed somebody can come to this conclusion. 20 years ago you had to go to the shop, buy ONE film for $15 from a limited shelve, bring it back home, put it in a device you bought specifically for that film format and that does only that, navigate through a dubious UI, be forced to watch ads, then eventually get to the film. If you didn't like it... too bad. Now for the same price, you have access to thousand…

Did you try to use Netflix outside of U.S.? It's pathetic.

I'm french, we have one of the weakest offer in the netflix world. It's still way, way more content I could (sanely) consume in my entire life.

I think the problem comes from something else.

Regularly I watch movies with friends: they can't appreciate many good movies anymore. They need fast attention catching stuff. Otherwise they get bored, they loose focus (even watch their phone), and it snowballs since they miss pieces of the movie used to construct it that eventually gives it life.

I see plenty of netflix watchers that do it on the side, while browsing the web, in the background of a social activity, or even watching another movie (!).

You cannot taste "Scott Pilgrim", "The Shawshank redemption", "12 monkeys", "Forest Gump", "Pain and Gain" and "Life is beautiful" if you watch them the way you gulp "Rogue 1", get drunk on "Avengers" or skim "Transformers". Just like you don't eat a burger and osters the same way if you want to enjoy both of them.

In fact, you can't appreciate anything special that way. The problem here is not netflix. It's that the way many people consume things now will always leave them unsatisfied.

Also, there is a quantity effect. You can now watch more than you should, and many do. But it will make you numb.

And to finish on a more positive note, the fact we have watched so many things now also educated us more to what's quality and what is not. It's fair we have now higher expectations.

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

#92
post #56
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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" a…

I don't really understand this. Netflix cares about how much you watch it ONLY if it means you will stop your subscription. In fact, as long as you keep your subscription their interest is that you watch as few as possible to minimize costs, right? So a few addictive shows that make you need to keep Netflix are betters than keeping you on Netflix all day every day. If Netflix cannot be replaced by Youtube, it is not…

>So a few addictive shows that make you need to keep Netflix are betters than keeping you on Netflix all day every day.

Not really, as you're more likely to drop the service you're not on "all day every day" than otherwise. And the fewer the addictive shows the more chance you'll get addicted to something else next year on another service (or just download the stuff).

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

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> YouTube ads are annoying Just use an adblocker. > Music catalog is sub-par and not worth the switch from Spotify. Youtube has virtually every song ever made for free, a much larger catalog than Spotify. I can't think of anything that's on Spotify but isn't on Youtube. I never understood why people pay for Spotify subscriptions.

As I grew a family my YouTube time went from mostly desktop to almost all phone/tablet. Can't Adblock that stuff. I'm betting lots of people watch YouTube on mobile devices.

I watch YouTube on mobile and adblock works just fine.

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

#94
post #12

Does anyone ever feel irritated by "amateur" produced videos that approach the quality of professional studios? Sometimes it's distracting when there's too much work done on the video, and you can tell there's additional people helping out behind the camera and you never get to see them as part of the video. Basically amateur/gonzo level videos feel more truthful than the highly edited videos.

Do you have any examples of this? I have never noticed this so far, the "crew" is always in the video or am just not watching those videos?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R3moEtEmIA This one I saw recently.

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

#95
post #57

And they both suck. Netflix content is weak. The catalog outside US is terrible. YouTube ads are annoying yet original content is not worth the price for Premium. At a price point of $12 it's ridiculous. Music catalog is sub-par and not worth the switch from Spotify. Both seem to be more dedicated to push PC propaganda than matching what viewers want. Original content is quite bad save for some exceptions (Wild Wild…

> PC propaganda How disconnected are our realities? How are we supposed to communicate or work towards a common goal in this world? I really mean it.

The world is already improving at blazing pace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_Now

I am not "white" but rewriting everything due to PC culture is idiotic. We must learn from the good and the bad. Also attacking men, family, and fatherhood at every chance is getting old. Simpsons did it, already, and long ago. And even they are under attack for being racist.

Don't get me wrong. Make your content and do your thing. Just stop shoving it down everyone else's throat. For example, YouTube Impulse which is more about MeToo than sci-fi.

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

#96
post #57

And they both suck. Netflix content is weak. The catalog outside US is terrible. YouTube ads are annoying yet original content is not worth the price for Premium. At a price point of $12 it's ridiculous. Music catalog is sub-par and not worth the switch from Spotify. Both seem to be more dedicated to push PC propaganda than matching what viewers want. Original content is quite bad save for some exceptions (Wild Wild…

I'm just amazed somebody can come to this conclusion. 20 years ago you had to go to the shop, buy ONE film for $15 from a limited shelve, bring it back home, put it in a device you bought specifically for that film format and that does only that, navigate through a dubious UI, be forced to watch ads, then eventually get to the film. If you didn't like it... too bad. Now for the same price, you have access to thousand…

Just because something is better now than in the past does not mean that it cannot be improved. We cannot be placated with what we have but must constantly strive to move forward. That is how human progress is built.

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

#97
Youtube is KING! Even if 99.9999% of the content sucks you still have thousands of great videos. Like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBmnQN78aZU Matthias Wandel.

Scripted shows are terrible. Movies are terrible. Edufun is where it is at.

I think that we need more people compiling the best of videos on Youtube.

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

#98
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the story is driving at is that people end up spending a lot of time on YouTube, when they could have spent it on Netflix, as its CEO has desired. Spending 60 odd minutes of 80 odd minutes one frequents the web for watching video on YouTube is massive.

The thing is that it's a bit more complicated than that. The business models are different. Even if we don't do the full analysis we can see that someone spending 60 minutes on youtube instead of netflix means that netflix is not paying for that 60 minutes of bandwidth. Netflix doesn't have ads paying for everything, they have to pay for everything other ways. So that business becomes about more than just blindly get…

>Even if we don't do the full analysis we can see that someone spending 60 minutes on youtube instead of netflix means that netflix is not paying for that 60 minutes of bandwidth.

The bandwidth would be insignificant to Netflix compared to churn. Not to mention, with edge caches at telcos and so it, it would be already paid.

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

#99
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are free browser extensions that block ads. The only value add is the premium content.

There are free browser extensions that block ads. Even on mobile?

Yes, there is AdGuard, AdAway, and others on both Android and iOS.

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

#100
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Irrelevant. Books, video games, films, youtube, netflix (et al), mobile games, even social media all compete for the same thing: time. People don't have infinite time, if it's filled up with watching youtube videos it can't be filled up watching netflix, regardless of the quality of the content.

> if it's filled up with watching youtube videos it can't be filled up watching netflix... Correct. And that's pretty convenient for Netflix' bottom line if that person is paying the monthly fee, but using only, say, a quarter of the netflix bandwidth of a heavy user. The modeling to figure all this out is a lot more complex than just "are they watching?"-"are they not watching?". We need access to Netflix' internal…

You constantly assume bandwidth is a big concern for Netflix.
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