Comment by hexmiles | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hexmiles | Hacker News Reader

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I'm (in theory) the target demographics for this app. I love short content (YouTube, podcast, web-comics, etc...) and always on the go.

The main problem (for me) was the lack of content, for some reason they didn't tap in the YouTube ecosystem where there is plentiful of talent that specialize in the short (10 minute or less) format, Minutephysics is the first example that come to mind. Instead they went for the big-star tactics that really doesn't work.

I watched all the show and, while some of them are good, the vast majority is only "meh". This plus the low number of show and episode, doesn't allow me to justify speeding the money of the subscription.

It seem they tried to do Netflix "but short", instead of specializing in on-the-go entertainment. They don't even have podcast!

However i really want a service with curated short content, but i want more than video! I'm also interested in podcast, articles (side note: can someone recommend summary "this-week-in-[argument]" site or channel?). I currently use YouTube, but a more curated multi-media platform (without ads) would be awesome and i would pay for it.

>Instead they went for the big-star tactics that really doesn't work.

Which demonstrates their failure to understand why YouTube is so successful in this space. YouTube is all about making millions of videos that satisfy the niche interests of billions of individuals, while Hollywood is about making hundreds of things to satisfy the broad interest of billions.

They would have been better served by building up a pipeline for identifying and cultivating new talent. Six million dollars would probably pay for a lot of content created by some attractive college-aged nobodies with a little bit of training. And at least some of that is bound to be a hit.

I'm mostly tired of "TV series", at least the ones that are so very obviously following the same formula, with tons of drama just for the sake of drama etc.

Instead I watch interesting mini-documentaries, how-to's etc on YouTube, learning about history, food, electronics etc.

However YouTube is annoying, the ads are worse than regular TV now. I'm actually surprised Netflix hasn't branched off into this space. They could have done a Spotify-like thing but for videos.

They have all the infra for serving the content, they just need content creators. Sure it would be in competition with their more traditional video content, but as it stands YouTube gets those views anyway...

you realize there's a way to get ad free YT, I assume. Is $10/mo too much to ask for this service, especially if you're going to compare to Netflix?

I knew about Youtube Red, but it was not available in my country. I see now that they have rebranded it to Youtube Premium not long ago, and with it expanded it to include my country.

So that's certainly something. Still puzzles me why Netflix isn't trying to get a piece of this pie.

Love Youtube, really think it's the future of entertainment

It is. My dad and my uncle, two people completely technology illiterate love youtube, my dad (farmer) is watching videos about Canadian farmers farming, my uncle (tree surgeon) similar.

And I have no clue how they started, both watch on their phones, but both of them are so clueless about technology I honestly can't understand how they got into the youtube app in the first place. But they did and now they pretty much prefer youtube to regular tv (uk),

If youtube can entertain them then god help everyone else, cable networks, BBC, Netflix, everyone should be terrified of youtube.

I'm sorry but I'm unfamiliar with what a tree surgeon does and now I can't get it out of my head, could you link a Youtube video to sate my curiosity please?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8i3JAva5pk

Basically climbing up tree's in urban areas, rigging them with rope and then either pruning branches or completely dismantling them. It's really a UK only name for the job I'm not sure it's used anywhere else.

Ah gotcha that's pretty dope

I hope not, I find the performance, interface, and delivery of YouTube, and the Google ownership, incredibly unappealing.

> It seem they tried to do Netflix "but short"

Sort of. Netflixe has huge ongoing multi-year investment in their own content. That library has value. Quibi content reverts to the creator after a period of time, effectively leaving Quibi with nothing for its investment.

Yeah, I think there's a real opportunity to offer top YT creators a better deal. There's a lot of talent with 100K-5M subs that have to constantly hustle to earn income to pay for their productions. Offer them contracts with guaranteed pay, production budgets, professional PR and they'd win a lot of people over.

Biggest thing is to somehow get mainstream credibility to content creators. FreddieW (OG Youtuber), JKNews, etc. say that breaking into Hollywood after years of huge Youtube success is really hard b/c you're starting from 0. Everything you've done on YT is "oh that's just Youtube stuff", which I think is totally unfair and a huge detriment to the deep talent pool on Youtube.

Was this service promoted outside the USA (other way put, should I have heard about this in EU?)?

You at least heard of it, and used it.

I'm in the USA and I've heard the name once or twice ('some viral video series coming soon!' type ads), but didn't even realize it launched. Maybe I'm not the target demographic.

They also launched April 6, 2020, which was right smack in the middle of pandemic lockdowns.

Not great timing to get eyes on your ads. Not the right mood for “here’s light and quick content for your commute!”

I first became aware of it from a friend in the states, and i tried on my phone.

Edit: i'm not aware of any marketing in EU, and also i needed to get through some hops to get the app

I'm in Europe and heard of it a few times, though I've no idea how much it was promoted over here.

I'm in LA and just heard about the service in this thread. :D

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