[Wowfunhappy]

> Their metrics prove to them that getting me hooked on new shows will increase my engagement and increase the amount of time I spend in their app. Guess what? As a user, those are not my goals!

But here's what I find odd about Netflix. Up until extremely recently—and even now for most customers—Netflix did not and does not display ads. Netflix makes money from subscription fees, which means they get the same amount of money whether you spend zero, 10, 50, or 100 hours per month in their app, as long as you keep paying for your subscription.

Netflix has apparently concluded that users who spend more time in their app are more likely to remain subscribed. I wonder why that is, or if Netflix is even correct. I would think that for most users, the quality of their time matters more than the quantity.

[apetresc]

Indeed, given the relatively high cost of streaming high-quality video, you'd think Netflix makes substantially more money from the 0-hour viewer compared to the 100-hour viewer.

[Clamchop]

There do seem to be "churners" out there subscribing to services only for as long as they need to watch the show they want to see, and I'd guess a wide middle of customers who are at least prepared to cancel if they feel that they're not using the service enough or that they will get better value from an alternative.

To keep these customers, you need to keep them continuously hooked on your programming.

[Wowfunhappy]

If I was Netflix, and I was optimizing for this type of customer, I would want to have them moving through my content as slowly as possible! My goal would be 2-4 hours of Netflix per week, preferably spread across different days—just enough to ensure they haven't lost interest! Autoplay Next Episode would not be a thing, and I certainly wouldn't release new seasons all at once.

[quickthrower2]

Maybe they prefer dominance over profit. Make less money but maximise revenue. They want you to spend 100 hours a month not 50 even if you pay the same so that you are not spending time at a competitor such as Disney or hanging out with friends at a bar.

Eventually they may go like Amazon with infinite upsells and hunt for whales.

[Wowfunhappy]

How could this be good business?

[quickthrower2]

Maybe the LTV is higher. Or it attracts more shows to Netflix than competitors. Ot it secures a moat.

[revscat]

Unless they’re selling user data.

[beisner]

I think it's probably because it's extremely hard to understand what *content* keeps users subscribing, and "hours spent watching this content" is maybe the lowest-hanging (or only?) "clean" metric you can use to determine what content to keep, how much to spend on content, etc. I watch a smattering of shows on netflix and so keep a subscription, but I don't watch very much. How the heck are they supposed to know whether a piece of content will keep me subscribing? And how much should they spend to produce/acquire that content? It's a very difficult supply-side question.