Hacker News Reader

Comment by random28345 | Hacker News Reader

> [Netflix's] edge is in software alone, nothing that causes a huge barrier to entry like custom hardware.

Actually, they are a media company. Their "edge" is in content creation and licencing deals. They might have been first-to-market for mass-scale streaming, but streaming video technology is a commodity, and they know that they will live or die by the desirability of their media catalog.

> Netflix for example, is completely at the mercy of Amazon.

Amazon and Netflix were symbiotic for years, as Netflix was a headline corporate customer, and I'm sure they received preferential pricing. And given the quality of Netflix's engineering team, I would be very surprised if they don't have a plan to migrate by the expiration of their contract if necessary.

View on HN

> "Actually, [Netflix is] a media company. Their "edge" is in content creation and licencing deals..."

That's only partly true. But if you considering a lot of other "media companies" haven't been able to compete with Netflix's ease of use, then you have to ask the question how is Netflix different from any other media company. And the answer is because they are also a software company, where their successes is primarily attributed to making DRM video in browser easy and seamless for average folk.

This answer is in the same category as "Actually, Google is an ads company". That is to say, it makes a plausible case but ultimately wrong.

The original success of Netflix depended on being the first company with a fixed-price-no-ads streaming business model in addition to really good user experience across a wide variety of platforms. I remember being astonished at watching a Netflix movie on my iPhone (when I was still an iPhone user) while riding a train in 2011'ish. It was miles ahead of any other competitor in providing solid, usable clients on multiple platforms combined with reliable streaming in most cases and networks. This was as much a triumph of technology and product design as it was of the content available. If it was only about the content, it would be Hulu (at least in US) instead of Netflix who would be in pole position today.

> The original success of Netflix depended on being the first company with a fixed-price-no-ads streaming business model

Actually, the original success involved putting DVDs in mailboxes.

> I remember being astonished at watching a Netflix movie on my iPhone (when I was still an iPhone user) while riding a train in 2011'ish.

Right, but you're going to be equally astonished in 2017 if you don't get the same level of service from Prime Video, Hulu, HBO GO, YouTube Red, et. al. And in 2019 a YC company will offer a one-click media publishing company that will allow any random joe on the planet to publish a DRM-protected movie available through a world-wide CDN with a pay-per-view payment system.

In 2011 tech was a major differentiator, today not so much. Netflix is moving with the times, that's why they are offering original content instead of being content to provide a good platform to stream other people's IP.

> This answer is in the same category as "Actually, Google is an ads company". That is to say, it makes a plausible case but ultimately wrong.

https://qz.com/607378/were-live-charting-googles-first-alpha... (tl;dr: the overwhelming majority of google's revenue comes from ads)

> equally astonished in 2017

> Prime Video, Hulu, HBO GO, YouTube Red,

So Netflix has a six year lead and attendant network effects in it's favor. If you don't believe me, I created a facebook clone in PHP last weekend which works just as well (or better) than the original Facebook. Do you want to join it?

> So Netflix has a six year lead and attendant network effects in it's favor.

I completely agree with you. I personally have a Netflix account, and do not subscribe to other services.

My point is that right now, today, this very instant in time, Netflix is not primarily differentiated on technology, but on having content that their subscribers want; that online video distribution is now a commodity.

> but on having content that their subscribers want

This is where we disagree. I don't even know what content Amazon or HBO or Hulu has at this point. Netflix has already made me a lifelong customer with their product and user-experience in the past 10 years or so that it'll take an earth-shaking difference in content for me to switch (or add) a second monthly bill for content. Netflix is part of social fabric (at least in the US). All of this was won by relentless focus on an excellent product and user experience... and perhaps only a middling content catalog.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com