Netflix has revealed it’s doing pretty okay as a company but would be doing a whole lot better if it weren’t for the pesky upstart that is Fortnite, according to a new letter sent to shareholders of the juggernaut streaming service.
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According to a letter summing up the platform’s recent financial performance, Netflix claimed that although it has secured nearly 10% of all television screen time in the United States, its main competitors are not cinemas, traditional cable networks, or even other streaming services.
Instead, Netflix appears more concerned with new media organisations and video games.
“We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO,” the letter states.
“When YouTube went down globally for a few minutes in October, our viewing and signups spiked in that time.”
The letter continues to elaborate on how Netflix sees itself as a true competitor to other digital forms of entertainment.
“There are thousands of competitors in this highly-fragmented market vying to entertain customers… Our focus is not on Disney+, Amazon or others, but how we can improve our experience for our members.”
All of that demonstrates the company’s desire to absolutely throttle all other forms of screen-based entertainment, and serves as a pretty clear indicator of the lengths Netflix will go to to make that happen.
In addition to that admission, Netflix – which has all of the data-gobbling capabilities in the world, but has been historically reticent to divulge viewership details – boasted about the recent popularity of Bird Box and You.
Bird Box, the horror film which introduced people born after 2001 to Sandra Bullock and convinced those same teens to roam around wearing blindfolds for the clout, was seen by some 80 million viewers in the four weeks after its Netflix debut.
You, the soapy thriller series which introduced people born after 2001 to Penn Badgley by presenting him as a really despicable stalker, was seen by 40 million viewers over the same timeframe.
Whether Netflix will mocap Bullock and Badgley dancing for an upcoming battle royale video game is yet to be determined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKOhno0IMpA
