How is the level of talent at Netflix's competitors like Disney+, Huli, HBO Max, etc

Jan 11 21 Comments

I've heard that a big reason Netflix hires top talent because streaming is really difficult but haven't heard the same kind of things about their competitors.

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TOP 21 Comments
  • HBO
    It’s TV

    Go to company page HBO

    BIO
    Username is an insult for Jonah Ryan (Veep!) that didn’t make it to air.
    It’s TV
    HBO was one of the first to market (2010) with HBO GO. Although they thought it was a marketing gimmick / fad, lol. It was originally launched even earlier in 2008 as “HBO on Broadband” — just a year after Netflix’s streaming service launched.

    I would say Netflix slightly overestimates the complexity of building a streaming service, and every other streaming app significantly underestimates the complexity.

    Netflix is a tech company, everyone else is running a media company. Execs fundamentally don’t understand how to build or run a tech company.

    So you see them learn in public a bit.
    Jan 11 6
    • Twilio
      turnip!

      Go to company page Twilio

      turnip!
      The level of skill required to build and maintain software which is backwards compatible for a decade vs building software only for the new shiny tools like Apple TV or Chromecast is exponentially harder.
      Jan 12
    • Twilio
      turnip!

      Go to company page Twilio

      turnip!
      Mind blowing content is really limited irrespective of what platform you are on. The differentiator is good user experience and the content comes next imho. Even if the content is good enough like most Netflix produced, it is way better than using any other service.
      Jan 12
  • The other streaming companies have so much more content they started with, especially a ton of legacy content which helps them gain the user base. All of them suck when it comes to their UI.
    Jan 11 2
  • Amazon
    WJnO47

    Go to company page Amazon

    WJnO47
    Streaming isn’t *that* difficult now.

    Netflix pays a lot because they are an incredibly lean company and compensate engineers more because of it
    Jan 11 1
  • Boeing
    aeros

    Go to company page Boeing

    aeros
    They probably hire good enough talent considering they exist and are wildly successful
    Jan 11 0
  • Other streaming companies can just offload all the infra work to cloud providers and CDNs. They just need to hire some better frontend ppl to fix their UIs and most consumers prolly wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in quality between streaming apps
    Jan 11 3
    • Perhaps. But it also allows streaming companies to be more flexible and not have to worry about infra maintenance. I think it’s def worth the cost as CDN costs probably go down over time as it’s a very competitive industry
      Jan 12
    • Netflix / Eng
      DontLookUp

      Go to company page Netflix Eng

      DontLookUp
      On the contrary, CDN cost goes up as you gain more subscribers and move more bits. Also no 3rd party or 1st party CDN provides as good an experience as Netflix or as cost efficient. 3rd party CDN has to work for many different customers and they cannot optimize like Netflix do.
      Jan 12