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Comment by kmmlng | Hacker News Reader

So they are taking steps which are ostensibly geared towards this drug dealer vision. But is it working? I can only look at myself and the people around me. There was a time when we would go on Netflix binges and there probably was something drug-like about it. But now? I go on Netflix, I scroll around for a bit, can't find anything I would like to watch, and I close Netflix again. The only reason I'm still paying for it is that I'm sharing my account with other people and it would be a hassle to cancel the subscription. And it's not just me, everyone I talk with is reporting the same thing.

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I’m in total agreement. Opening the Netflix app just started making me frustrated trying to find something to watch, so I just don’t bother anymore. I will only open it now if somebody has recommended something to me, which happens rarely these days. We’ve only kept the subscription going as our child likes watching some of the shows on Netflix kids.

That's the premise of the article, right?

They used to have all their content come from other studios, and they got to see how well it had done in the outside world at the time they were making their deals.

Now they're producing their own content, many of their previous background-noise or binge staples have moved elsewhere, and their productions are overwhelmingly lowest-common-denominator clickbait. There's still some quality stuff, but it's much harder to find than it used to be. If you're looking for an already-well-known quality show you can search (e.g. if you want to watch The Office a few years ago on Netflix). If you're looking for something new that's going to appeal to you, it's a lot harder to find in their sea of junk. Reviews can get you so far, but Netflix no longer then has any edge on alternative platforms which the reviewers are also talking about.

So the premise of "sooner or later pumping out junk food is going to turn off viewers" seems to click with your cohort (mine as well).

Maybe that's really Netflix's business model these days: nobody watches anything, but it's a hassle to cancel the account, so nobody does it, so lets continue frustration our users, maybe they will stop visiting us completely while never really leaving us. Let's look at the bright side though, we're going to end up with a lot of nice thumbnails.

So it's better to have 2 users who pay but don't use the service and kind of hate it than 3 users who like the service and use it a lot?

High use means you need large quantities of high quality content. Low use means you can use a small amount of high quality content as a "loss leader" then back fill with cheap garbage no one is going to watch anyway.

This is essentially the same business model that gyms have.

That's not really comparable because gyms are significantly harder to cancel than netflix

It was really easy for me to cancel my Netflix account. Maybe 60 seconds on their website, if even that.

It depends on the viewer's attitude. I think there is a spectrum between the extremes "I want to watch something interesting" and "I want to watch something".

Considering that the commonly mentioned stats on TV watching show that a lot of people is watching (or maybe more accurately, keeping on) TV for hours every day, the latter extreme should be common.

In this sense, bombarding the audience with junk, or at least, pushing very hard, is a strategy that, I think, is productive, in the same sense as drug dealing strategies are.

I'm towards the former extreme, however, I'm certainly not immune from their strategy. I still feel some need to "chill" and therefore I somewhat tolerate their strategy (although, I also use it for learning languages, so there's another motivation). The irritation is building up, though.

> But now? I go on Netflix, I scroll around for a bit, can't find anything I would like to watch, and I close Netflix again.

I feel like I'm in a minority these days. My Netflix list is longer than I can ever hope to finish. I add stuff on before I finish watching current stuff.

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