this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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Amazon bought into the Netflix hype around ads and raising prices. Meanwhile, Netflix has been bleeding subscribers in western markets.
https://www.techradar.com/streaming/netflix/has-netflix-lost-its-chill-binge-and-paramount-plus-subscribers-jump-significantly-in-australia
https://insidethemagic.net/2023/10/subscriber-losses-netflix-disney-nk1/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/netflix-loses-over-1-5-million-subscriptions-after-price-raise/ar-AA1kUI5T
I admit I've not look into any numbers, if they are available, but I bet Amazon has an advantage of Prime customers that don't have it primarily as a video streaming service. Those customers probably wouldn't consider ads a big deal.
True, but they've maintained healthy profits regardless.
I'm not defending the decision (I got rid of Netflix a long time ago), but they made it knowing full well that it benefitted their long-term financial outlook.
Amazon is on the same boat as the other streaming platforms started since 2018: theyve sunk a ton of capital into building the platform to eat into Netflix's market share, but they need to start monetizing soon otherwise their shareholders will get impatient with the liability still on the books.
TL;DR; all these streamers are tanking the market with their competing services but as long as they can make more per user, they can do it indefinitely (but if 'free' alternatives continue absorbing users, then they'll need to put the cabash on it, or else the entire market will go under)
Narrator: "He was defending the decision"
That MSN article has some numbers that don't add up.
Ignoring the fact that 1.6m isn't "over half" of 4.4m, the last paragraph says that they added 9m new users. Am I reading this wrong?
That's 9m globally compared to the 1.6m/4.4m in Spain. They're still adding new users in emerging market countries. I'd imagine the issue is that their users are falling off in their previously established markets (probably western countries, which I'm guessing make more money per sub too).