Digital Service - NetFlix
Data centers are the driving force behind today’s economy. The servers, storage, and network equipment they contain support everything from traditional enterprise systems to global commerce engines. Digital world coming from the virtual image is on its way to impact huge influence on the brick and mortar world. In business part, here comes the digital service. Digital service includes anything that could be delivered through an information infrastructure such as internet, from websites to email marketing, social networking to smart phone apps. It is really hard for someone to think of a company that has not integrated its business into digital service and not on the way to do it.
In the wave of world flattening and society digitalization, we can see the great future of this business, online video. The future of the Internet lies in online video content. While the ‘traditional' website is still integral to the very fabric of the Internet, online video content has shown itself as a growing proponent of conveying information through entertainment. If a picture says a thousand words, then even a three-minute short online video says about a million. And Google can't agree with this opinion any more. As data shows, near 70% of the top 100 hot words in Google search are about video content. Video shared on facebook everyday reach the length of time equal 500 years. And on average, over 700 videos are shared on Twitter during every minute. Thus, online video service providers enjoy a great advantage in future business. So, this week, we pick up Netflix as the object.
Netflix, Inc. is an American provider of on-demand Internet streaming media available to both North and South America, the Caribbean, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States, where mailed DVDs are sent via Permit Reply Mail. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California. It started its subscription-based digital distribution service in 1999, and by 2009 it was offering a collection of 100,000 titles on DVD and had surpassed 10 million subscribers. On February 25, 2007, Netflix announced its billionth DVD delivery. In April 2011, Netflix announced 23.6 million subscribers in the United States and over 26 million worldwide. By 2011, the total digital revenue for Netflix reached at least $1.5 billion. On October 23, 2012, however, Netflix reported an 88% fall in third-quarter profits. In January 2013, Netflix reported they had added 2 million U.S. customers during the 4th quarter of 2012 with a total of 27.1 million U.S. streaming customers, and 29.4 million total streaming customers. In addition, revenue was up 8% to $945 million for the same period. As of mid-March 2013, Netflix had 33 million subscribers.
Netflix is a subscription-based movie and television show rental service that offers media to subscribers via Internet streaming and via US mail.
Netflix Inc. on April 22 reported a first-quarter profit of $3 million, or 5 cents a share, on revenue of $1.02 billion. During the same period a year ago, the video-streaming technology company lost $5 million, or 8 cents a share, on $870 million in sales. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast Netflix to earn 18 cents a share on $1.02 billion in revenue for the quarter. Netflix also said that in the first quarter of the year it added 3.05 million new subscribers, to give it a worldwide total of more than 36 million. For its second quarter, Netflix forecast earnings of 23 cents to 48 share. Analysts had previously forecast Netflix to earn 30 cents a share on $1.05 billion sales for the quarter. Netflix's shares surged more than 19% in after-hours trading. The huge success Netflix reached or the beginning of 2013 should partly thank to the House of Cards.
Numbers released Monday showed Netflix Inc. added 2 million U.S. subscribers to its video streaming service during the first three months of the year. Through March, Netflix had 29.2 million U.S. streaming subscribers. Those first-quarter gains, coupled with signs that Netflix's profit margins are widening, delighted investors. The company's stock soared $35.33, or 20 percent, to $209.70 after the results came out. The period was highlighted by the early February debut of "House of Cards," a critically acclaimed series made exclusively for Netflix.
It’s the first major TV show to completely bypass the usual television ecosystem of networks and cable operators. It’s also the first time that a series has released an entire season (thirteen episodes) all at once, for viewers to watch at their own pace. Finally, it’s the first time that programming has been developed with the aid of big data algorithms. That’s a lot of firsts.
But what should Netflix do to retain those subscribers acquired by the great series? Amazon is getting into the online video business, and it has the ability to win over Netflix in shooting exclusive TV series. Besides, Amazon have the access to some Netflix users since there ia Netflix app on Kindle.
So what should Netflix do? From my point of view, to make itself not only a great content provider, but also a great experience provider is a sustainable way in future development.
To achieve a better customer experience, Netflix should pay attention to the following bullets.
Be interconnected. It is the dawn of personal ecosystem. Businesses are connected more across industries and people are connected more across boundaries. To be connected, long video service provider, in comparison to Youtube, Netflix should enhance the service and design for glance. Besides, mobile is still the thing connected people together mostly, though lap-top and tablets are better way to viewing Netflix videos, the use of mobile phone should not be ignored. How to enhance the mobile phone? An appealing pre-view on mobile phone might stimulate people's lust of sharing.
K.I.S.S. is coming back. As digital progress marches on, so does complexity. A growing family of personal devices, and ever-increasing volumes of data, constantly threaten the efforts of service designers to create elegant, focused, and simple solutions. Service providers and receivers are all looking for simple solutions. Keep It Simple Stupid concept is on its way back. Netflix should make everything easier. Easier to continue video watching across devices, easier to subscribe and cancel subscription, easier to find videos consumers have interests in, and easier to share with friends on all kinds of message vehicles. A one-click share could work.
Design for a growing range of devices and a growing range of interaction modes. The new form factors include a much broader range of tablets, phablets, and hybrid devices (pc/tablet combos). They also include a fast-growing range of wearables--wrist bands, wrist watches, and much more. The interaction modes move from purely the graphical touch paradigm to include additional modes like voice and ambient information. Flexibility and adaptability will be key properties for successful designers. Good adaptability to different devices and good differentiation to highlight the certain advantage of viewing Netflix on different devices is the road ahead.
Sources:
http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/heres-why-netflix-inc-nflx-should-kill-this-service-128879/
http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/netflix-inc-nflx-the-companys-need-is-apple-inc-aapls-opportunity-129016/
http://etfdailynews.com/2013/04/28/why-the-media-etf-makes-sense-right-now/
http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/netflix-inc-nflx-its-too-bad-it-does-not-charge-by-the-hour-128692/
http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/04/netflix-inc-nflx-beats-hbo-in-u-s-subscribers/
http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/netflix-inc-nflx-warning-3-red-flags-in-the-first-quarter-report-127889/
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2013-04-22/markets/38729503_1_share-first-quarter-first-quarter-profit





