thank you, Netflix. to be there
Sometimes, without intending to and without taking it into account at all, an action or a commercial strategy can to hire significant political significance. Especially if it is developed by one of the great installations of cyberspace. Typically these actions help the company's business more than the world they serve. But with Netflix something different happened. And it happened, like to say?, spontaneously. Of course the boss of Netflix, Reed Hastings, you have never made a secret of your liberal beliefs, even if unlike other young Turks of theto technology, like Reid Hoffman or Peter Thiel, has kept a safe distance from politics militant.
It happens but that Netflix entryi in homes of over 140 million families in 194 countries with an endless supply of content, many of which by forte actuality and focus on sensitive issues. They are owed to Netflix many beautiful initiatives that the cultural industry mainstream she had either left behind or left to indie writers or the underground. Between alli the raise of a certain arthouse and auteur cinema, that still smells of secondhand smoke. But also the narration intriguing dethe great passages of contemporary history (decolonization, the holocaust, wars and insurrections, civil rights), the documentary, the development of themes that touch the raw nerves of society worldwide,e pink share dEglthe authors who grew up and so on to make a long and encouraging list.
Capitalism at its best
in short Netflix, due to its own economic model, it must serve an audience increasingly vast, varied and dispersed. To do this well (to which its value is related and its margins) must have content egr all tastes and cultures, especially for compete with local cultural installations that are deeply and historically rooted in the local culture. Luckily for Netflix these organizations, generally self-satisfied and intertwined with the political and decision-making fabric of their communities, tend to underestimate the impact of Netflix that, instead, turns out to be that of a meteorite.
There is a whole Wikipedia entry, from the impressive extension, which lists all the original productions of Netflix. A summary count enumerates further 6mila originals. And there really is everything. As of 2018, it has produced over 100 films and its content budget ha equalsto alone that of all the Hollywood majors combined. It is evident that Netflix it has become the most consistent force in the global culture industry. And since the cult industry, as amply demonstrated, is one of the most powerful means of forging public opinion and a common feeling, it is clear that the role of Netflix goes far beyond the purely technological one media. As the visionary Israeli historian says Noah Yuval Harari royal socialism has been chalked up by Hollywood.
The beauty is that the model Netflix, i.e. a sustainable subscription for anyone to access a universe of quality content distributed on the web, is becoming the mantra of all content producers. Everyone is building one: Disney, ATeT, Apple and a myriad of start-ups that see a new gold rush in this going.
In any case, I'll let you tell the tale of Netflix da Farhad Manjoo, columnist for the New York Times who covered the media and technology area of the New York newspaper after the passing of the late David Carr. Enjoy the reading.
Some comfort da Netflix
For months after the 2016 presidential election, he didn't want too nothing but escape via from the United States. Not in literal sense, as when they say to move to Canada, but intellectually, socially andd emotionally. Donald Trump was the subject of all conversations e io I wanted to protectand my psychic balances from this unpleasant intrusiveness. I needed to find un posto in which the president-elect, his American opponents and the controversies policies not were at the center of public attention and people that I met.
I found un shrine on a reality show English on baking and the pastry shop, The great British Baking Show. It was his Netflix. Netflix è becametouch the resource more precious ed electrifying for those areas of planet Earth that is not the United States.
Recently Netflix it was in competition for his first Oscar for the best movie with Roma, a film by Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón which recalls his childhood in Mexico City. And the fact that the film triumphed in some categories explicit the ambitions of Netflix: It's pretty much the only media and tech company it wants transform his open cosmopolitism e multiculturalism in un mezzo to make money.
Back to utopia
For me, the program di some citizens competing Brits quietly with their desserts was the first clue to understand theunusual strategy of Netflix. Great British Baking Show, for those who don't I am still among his fans, is a pastry contest among non-professionals in the sector and it's one of the least American things that can be seen television. Describes a utopia: a multicultural environment of pressone in attitudes friendly and collaborative with jobs aOther times – Imelda is a civil servant in charge of recreation in a country village - e with enough free time, thanks to the welfare state, for engage in the art of make sweets atEnglish. For an American like me, the show suggests that there is a time and a place where our worries mean nothing. And this, more than of baking some cakes, that's it of which, in fact, is The great British Baking Show.
The series was produced and broadcast first from the BBC (the television British public with the name The great British Beacon-off) to subsequently licensed a Netflix is preferably used for ritransmission. But the platform, which already has 139 million paid subscribers worldwide, has become much more than a issuer of retransmixing movies and TV shows Third Party.
International expansion
From 2016, the company expanded to 190 countries and last year, for the first time, announced that the majority of its subscribers and of the revenue they have arrived from countries outside the United States. For itselfrvire this audience, Netflix is commissioning e taking in licenses hundreds of series TV and movies that try to reflect the mood of the place and in some cases, they incorporate il languageso e la sensitivity (like happens with Marie Kondo's half-in the-Japanese tidying-up blockbuster).
In its international activity, Netflix found something unexpected: Despite growth of the feeling nationalista all over the world, many people like to watch movies and TV programs from other countries. “What we are seeing is that people have very different and eclectic tastes, so if you propose stories of the world they will not disdain to receive them e to look for something newCindy said The Netherlands, vice presidente of the area Original Content with Netflix.
A virtuous business model
The strategy it appears though familiar; Hollywood and the Valley have from always tried to expand internationally. But the case of Netflix it's fundamentally different: instead of trying to sell American ideas to a foreign audience, it wants to sell international ideas to a global audience. A list of the most viewed and commented productions seems to have come out of the Glass Palace dea United Nations: addition to the series Condo, There is Nanetteof the Australian Hannah Gadsby; Sex Educations from Great Britain; Elite, from Spain; The protector, from Türkiye, e Baby from Italy.
I recognize that there is something naive in my argument. Surely you are thinking: “Ma Go!, a technology company that wants make more unitedto the world?" There is a foundation inbe skeptical, given that social medium have fueled disinformation and poked a populist fervor across the planet. But there is a fundamental difference between Netflix and other tech giants: Netflix gets its income by subscriptions, not by advertisers.
This need also determines la sua strategy. Netflix must try to always serve new customers, not only those ofthe largest markets where it already thrives. Every production Netflix it has subtitles in twenty-six languages and the company is by carrying out a high-quality voice acting in ten languages. For years, Netflix ha cornered the Hollywood television and film industry to the sound of Millions of dollars of investments in contenti Third Party. Now it is directing investments – about 12 billion dollars 2018 – in original productions. in 2019 the offer to spend more than 15 billion of dollars to produce content in many areas of the world: France, Spain, Brazil, India, South Korea, Middle Eastern countries, just to name a few.
- original without borders di Netflix
As invests so much of programming international, Netflix is pushedo to promote le original productions in all areas where it is present. THE his algorithms are designed to expand The interests of customers, certainly not for reduce them or delimit them. As a result, many of original di Netflix they are seen outside the local markets of first reference. There is a dystopian series is adheres well to this state of affairs. In the 2016 neflix ha launched the Brazilian series 3%, which throws a look desperate on future next; half the audience who saw her lives al outside Brazil. In 2017, after the German thriller Dark premiered, the series was among the ten most watched in 136 countries. Il 90 percent of viewers don't lives in Germany.
“The industry feels liberated from the national limit"He said Darius Madrona, one of the creators of Elite. Second Netflix, that Spanish series was seen by twenty million viewers worldwide. Such a level of popularity is enormous for a program about teenagers in Spain: would be a decent result even for free-to-air television in the United States. “We are starting to hearci, I think, like feel our colleagues negli United States"He said Madrona. “You can create a schedule Where do you live e expect you to be seen all over the world”.
When Netflix it's an inconvenience
The momentum of Netflix worldwide it has not occurred without incident. At the end of last year the company was criticized for removing an episode of Patriot Act, with Hasan Myj, from the platform in Saudi Arabia. The comedian had criticized the crown prince, Mohamed bin Salman, after US intelligence concluded that the monarch was involved inthe murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Netflix she justified herself with the argument not to have other choice byobey the Saudi judicial authorities - that have claimed that this incident violated the law – if he wanted to continue operating in the country. Company executives hinted is to maintain the rest of the productions di Netflix in paese – all other episodes of Patriot Act e also series that explore le matters of the genre and of sexuality like Big Mouth, Sex Educations e Nanette – it's better than not broadcasting anything in that country.
It's a somewhat elusive topic, but I think it is founded. Netflix longed deserve it shifting cultural boundaries and has urged the development of the discussion on newi temi all over the world.
The global spread of role models
After aver papered the streets of Bangkok with the posters di Sex Educations, a conservative political party in Thailand filed a complaint against Netflix for broadcasting racy British comedy that the party has defined: “A great challenge for Thai society”. I younger and more progressive Thais organized a raging campaign on the Internet. To which people started arguing some problems in the Asian nation, such as a lack of sex education and high pregnancy rates among teenagers.
Another example is Nanette, in which Ms Gadsby – previously virtually unknowna outside Australia – offers a exceptional live performances where yes speaks of , homosexuality, women's rights e i tragic limits of comedy. That show opened my eyes, and that's why I chose to live in the ultra-progressive land of Northern California! I guess for a gay woman in india where people like Ms Gadsby not è highly visible in the local media, as that performance was revealing. Effectively, Nanette it was a success huge in the southeast Asia and India.
It is legitimate to asksi Until what point Netflix will be able to keep questse conversationi bordere; self, for grow, must make more concessions formal or moral to local authorities of censorship or a alleged cultural arbiters. But stayIAMO optimisti. Wouldn't it be great if the Internet, after all, actually did ended up merging the world?
