Not the person you're replying to, but thinking about this question, I think I am for distribution channels.
A society based on this is running in an inefficient way, people duplicating work, not because they are competing to be better, but just because. That's got to be bad.
A society segmenting what content is available you based on your demographic (even via self selection) seems bad. We should be encouraging cross-over between different groups, not erecting barriers, such as artificially grouping content into classes targeted at a niche and making you pay for an entire class at a time.
Pay per individual item, and pay for everything, both seem like models much more likely to create a healthy society.
I guess the problem with the former model is that people don't like it, and the latter model is that it creates a few gatekeepers who decide what gets funding. Charitably this sort of niche based company can be seen as a workaround to that gatekeeper problem, but I'm really not sold in this instance (of course I happen not to be the target market either, neither being much into TV nor black, edit: nor american, so I guess I don't need to be sold).
The internet spent two decades being super niche driven (ie every music genre had its own forums and news sites, each blog had their own site, each porn category had their own sites, etc etc). Then it sort of converged into central platforms like YouTube, Netflix, Reddit, the giant porn streaming sites etc.
It seems to make no sense the way they do it and he is pointing that out.
I am an Airbnb host and once rented to a black couple for a month.
After that I had a lot of "black" content (people) suggested on my youtube.
It's a difficult(AI), but especially solved problem that only big companies have and they are obviously doing (approaching - as a small startup) it wrong...
... which is kind of a surprise, because YC is such a renowned VC/incubator.
Looking at the other startups they support lately it is sad to see what they have become: Supporting minoritie's interests for the sake of it (statistics).
"Looking at the other startups they support lately it is sad to see what they have become: Supporting minoritie's interests for the sake of it (statistics)."
They're investing for the most part in startups that have opportunities for significant growth, besides a small number of charitable ventures. Here, streaming is a big deal and starting in the US but pushing into Africa is a potential opportunity. Other recent startups have been financial plays in India or South America or similar - proven plans in new, broadly populated areas. Are they supposed to wait on PayPal or whoever to tailor their service to suit a particular country?
Do you personally read your local newspaper waiting for them to add tech commentary or do you visit and post on Hacker News?
If YC are wrong and there's little interest, they've thrown away a tiny amount of money. On the whole, they've been right, however. It doesn't cost you or I anything.
I'd rather see them try this than all of us support a streaming monoculture.
A society based on this is running in an inefficient way, people duplicating work, not because they are competing to be better, but just because. That's got to be bad.
A society segmenting what content is available you based on your demographic (even via self selection) seems bad. We should be encouraging cross-over between different groups, not erecting barriers, such as artificially grouping content into classes targeted at a niche and making you pay for an entire class at a time.
Pay per individual item, and pay for everything, both seem like models much more likely to create a healthy society.
I guess the problem with the former model is that people don't like it, and the latter model is that it creates a few gatekeepers who decide what gets funding. Charitably this sort of niche based company can be seen as a workaround to that gatekeeper problem, but I'm really not sold in this instance (of course I happen not to be the target market either, neither being much into TV nor black, edit: nor american, so I guess I don't need to be sold).