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🏠 Newflix

🏠 Newflix

The streaming wars are over

Stephen Flanders
January 29, 2024

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Gm. I’ve been watching the new season of True Detective. Early judgment is that it’s not as good as Season 1, better than Season 2, and about equal to Season 3. What do you all think?

— Stephen Flanders

🏠 TECH

The New Netflix

Netflix is a lot of things. Stagnant is not one of them.

At its peak in 2021, fueled by the pandemic boom, every founder and investor reading this newsletter wishes would come back; the streaming pioneer was worth an absurd $314B and pumping out weeks of original content.

But, the end of ZIRP resulted in blood for Netflix. Its market cap was only $78B in May of 2022, and they were losing subscribers for the first time ever.

Today, they are back at a $246B market cap and just added 13M subscribers in Q4. So, what changed?

Well, they really just got back to good business tactics:

They cracked down on password sharing.
They added an ad-supported tier, which has turned into a huge winner.
They’ve kept raising the prices.
And now, they are into getting into live TV with WWE Raw.

It’s ironic seeing a streaming service win with the same tactics used by the cable channels it replaced, but perhaps that’s just the reality. Netflix is the only streaming service currently turning a profit, after all.

With a profitable business, a huge lead in subscribers, and the ability to create hits like no other, it’s hard to see how any streamer takes down Netflix anytime soon.

The Big Picture: For a company that originally focused on DVD-by-mail rentals, change is nothing new. It appears that a streamer/live programming giant is their next evolution.

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🤝 THE LATEST IN…

TECH

Flexport is laying off another 20%.
X is joining the sports gambling wave.
Reddit is aiming for a $5B IPO valuation.
iOS 18 might be the biggest update ever.

AI

Apple seems to be really working on AI.
Bard keeps getting better.
Google’s new AI is learning to diagnose patients.
If Tachyum is able to pull this off, Nvidia would have a real competitor.

SCIENCE

Robots are out here walking through water.
Here’s inside the mission to grow food in space.
The space-based solar power dream isn’t over yet.
A Martian lake may have housed life.

CRYPTO

NFT giant OpenSea is open to a takeover.
BlackRock is the first ETF to reach $2B.
Pudgy Penguins keep evolving.
Word on the street is that Charles Schwab might eventually have a Bitcoin ETF.

🏃‍♀️ QUICKIES

Raise: Motif Neurotech, a neurotechnology company developing minimally-invasive bioelectronics for mental health, announced a Series A round of $18.75M.

Stat: $2.99: How much you’re going to have to pay a month if you want to avoid ads on Amazon Prime Video, starting today.

Rabbit hole: Why Substack is Engineering Led, And Not User Design Led (Tech Made Simple)