Why Won't Netflix Party?
You can download a Chrome Extension from Teleparty. It lets you "co-view" Netflix movies with friends.

Why Won't Netflix Party?

Disney+ has a shared viewing mode. So do Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. There’s even a “Netflix Party” Chrome extension available in the Google Play store. So, why won’t Netflix launch the feature?

As a product leader, your job is to delight customers in hard-to-copy, margin-enhancing ways. On the face of it, a Netflix Party feature seems to combine all three elements:

  1. Delight. During COVID19, when we all crave connection, enabling members to watch the same TV show or movie simultaneously makes sense. Even more, letting them chat, heckle, and compare notes on the movie sounds fun.
  2. Hard to Copy. Netflix’s APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) make it easy to enable features like this, while other companies would struggle. But the stronger hard-to-copy effect is a network effect. If you connect with your friends on Netflix, you’re less likely to quit and leave your friends behind.
  3. Margin-enhancing. A Netflix Party feature could enhance profits in two ways: 1) Members rave about the feature, thus attracting more new members, and 2) The feature improves retention and thus lifetime value. If the feature keeps one in a thousand members from leaving, it could improve the monthly cancel rate from 2.0% to 1.9%.

The Netflix Party Chrome extension, built by a small team of engineers unaffiliated with Netflix, provides a proof of concept. According to their page on Patreon, one million Netflix members have used the Chrome extension, and there have been more than 10 million downloads from the Google Play Store. (The team just renamed themselves Teleparty — it took that long for the Netflix lawyers to notice them!)

So, why hasn’t Netflix launched the feature? Here’s a summary of Netflix’s failed social efforts:

  • In 2008, Netflix launched a “Party” feature on Xbox. At peak, 5% of Xbox members used the feature, and it was killed in 2010.
  • Its “Friends” feature enabled Netflix members to share movie ideas with their friends. “Friends” was killed in 2010 — only 5% of members engaged with the feature. The problem: your friends have sucky taste in movies; plus, you don’t really want your friends to know about all of your guilty pleasures. “Indian Matchmaking,” anyone? “Selling Sunset?” “Cake Boss?”

The reality is that for features like this to create a meaningful business impact, there needs to be high engagement — likely 20% of members to create a worthwhile lift via raving customers or improved retention.

If you’re reading this article, I suspect you might think Netflix Party is a great idea — you would DEFINITELY use it and, of course, this is a different time and situation with folks so isolated by COVID19. But you’re a freak. Normal people don’t read Medium posts — yet! And Netflix’s goal has always been to create an easy to use experience the entire world can embrace — not just Silicon Valley freaks and LA movie buffs.

The downside of implementing lots of features like this — lots of “five percenters” — is you create a complicated experience where the product feels like a Swiss Army Knife. “What’s this tool for? When do I use this knife?”

These five-percenters gunk up the experience and make it harder to use. And zillions of edge cases start popping up: “Hey! Why can’t I use “Party” on devices other than my laptop?!” or “How do I execute “Party” using voice on an Amazon Show device?”

Not All Good Ideas Benefit the Brand

Why won’t Netflix party? For more than two decades, Netflix has been building a product that delivers on the brand promise “Movie Enjoyment Made Easy.”

Think for a moment about the experience of forming a Netflix Party. First, you need to choose a movie everyone likes. Then, you agree on a time to watch. Finally, you hope the experience of watching a TV show/movie with friends somehow overcomes the downsides (your friends’ lame banter and the hesitancy you had about this movie choice at this particular time).

Netflix understands this. That’s why they give premium members the ability for family members to watch four simultaneous streams. Kristen and I can watch a movie in our bedroom, while Kelsey watches in her room, and Britney is on the living room couch. That’s “Movie Enjoyment Made Easy.” No debate about what movie to watch and when! And that’s why I think it’s unlikely that you’ll see Netflix Party implemented anytime soon.

Thanks for reading,

Gib

Gibson Biddle

gibsonbiddle.com

PS. Click here to give feedback on this essay. (It only takes one minute.)

PPS. Click here to read my Product Strategy series on LinkedIn.

Nguyen Huynh

Product Designer

4 年

Thanks for your insight! Such a great reminder to get on the right track of a product's value, instead of coming up with creative idea, which doesn't not serve the majority of user's need.

Ankit Jain

Product & Revenue leader @ BrowserStack | ex- Atlassian, Hopin, Practo, Private Equity | IIM-A | SaaS, Dev Ecosystems, Marketplaces, Healthtech

4 年

Alternate title "the unaccounted future costs of shipping an advanced feature" or "dark areas of the product which the team never revisits". A caveat - After a few years of the Product lifecycle, it is hard to keep coming up with valuable ideas which are well-used "delighters" right-off-the-bat by a significant % of users. Hence, the allure of building complex features to delight Top 5% power users.

Madhumita (Mita) Bhattacharya

Product Marketing - Canonical Cloud

4 年

Thank you for sharing this! This further reinforces my belief that companies who keep their customer experience at the centre of business retain more and earn more!

Dheer Vora

Product Leader

4 年

There is more wisdom in this piece than my entire feed combined. Thank you!

Sue Xian Hor

Life’s too short to build shitty things for boring problems

4 年

Different way to solve the problem of watching together simultaneously is being tested with Netflix Direct https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/7/21553998/netflix-linear-channel-france-streaming-cable-tv

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