When Netflix started allowing people to stream movies over the internet, instead of making them wait for the company to send them a DVD, it was a transformation. Of course, Netflix was technically not the first service to do this – Amazon and Apple offered the ability to download videos to your computer at the same time. There was also a small newcomer who had recently launched, called YouTube.
The difference was that Netflix was already the place where you rented movies if you didn’t feel like leaving home to drive to Blockbuster. It was a priority for consumers looking for entertainment. At one point, Netflix’s DVD catalog was estimated to include more than 100,000 titles. This is very entertaining.
As a result, the company took an initial and definitive lead in the ongoing wars, which never gave up. At one point, Netflix was responsible for more than 20% of all Internet traffic. Today, it is still around 11 percent, surpassed only by YouTube, as people stay at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
When Netflix announced its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday, it revealed that it had its most successful year, at least in terms of new subscribers. This puts its current number at around 204 million subscribers.
That’s impressive, but from the moment Netflix launched its on-demand video streaming service (SVOD), there was a big problem – finding something to watch.
In a way, it is remarkable that a company that has managed to figure out how to persuade almost all major studios to license their content, build applications for every computer platform you can imagine, and stream infinite amounts of HD content couldn’t figure out how to make more easy to find a TV show or movie that’s worth watching.
To be fair, it’s not just Netflix. Streaming video services spend a lot of time building huge libraries of content that offer a little bit of everything for everyone. Disney has superheroes, Jedi’s and all your childhood favorites. Netflix has high quality, sometimes quirky, original content, along with a huge collection of licensed movies and TV shows. HBO Max has Wonder Woman and most of the iconic WarnerMedia library.
Deciding which of these things to watch on a given night is difficult enough. Browsing the myriad of apps on your TV or streaming box or iPhone is another thing.
Netflix thinks it finally has a solution.
In the letter to the company’s shareholders, released this week, she said she plans to launch her “Shuffle Play” feature, which she has been testing around the world since August. According to Netflix, the idea behind the feature is “to make it easier for members to find something to watch”. Shuffle Play offers movies or TV shows similar to the ones you’ve watched or in genres you’re often watching. It will also select programs that you have saved in “My List”.
The goal is to get people to watch more content, get them into something more quickly, instead of spending half an hour going through the menus to find something just to give up and open Disney + for the binge-watch The Mandalorian. And, make no mistake, that’s exactly what Netflix wants to avoid.
Repeat this several times and there is an increasing chance that you will start to wonder if Netflix is really worth it or if you can live with just the other four streaming services you have subscribed to. That’s why it’s so important that Netflix is working to solve what is an issue not only for its users, but also for its business.
I’m not normally a fan of algorithms that decide what I should watch or pay attention to, but if it works and if it means I can spend less time looking at endless movie screens that I’ve never heard of and I have no idea if I would be interested, I am totally in favor. That’s exactly what Netflix is counting on.