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Comment by doktrin | Hacker News Reader

> How does Netflix compete with Facebook?

By definition the attention economy dictates that time spent one place can’t be spent in another. Do you also feel as though Twitch doesn’t compete with Facebook simply because they’re not identical businesses? That’s not how it works.

But you don’t have to just take my word for it :

> “Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings said Wednesday he was slow to come around to advertising on the streaming platform because he was too focused on digital competition from Facebook and Google.”

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/11/30/netflix-ceo-reed-hasting...

> This is what happened with Eric Schmidt on Apple’s board

Yes, after 3 years. A tenure longer than the OAI board members in question, so frankly the point stands.

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I’m not sure how the point stands. The iPhone was introduced during that tenure, then the App Store, then Jobs decided Google was also headed toward their own full mobile ecosystem, and released Schmidt. None of that was a conflict of interest at the beginning. Jobs initially didn’t even think Apple would have an app store.

Talking about conflicts of interest in the attention economy is like talking about conflicts of interest in the money economy. If the introduction of the concept doesn’t clarify anything functionally then it’s a giveaway that you’re broadening the discussion to avoid losing the point.

You forgot to do Oracle and Tesla.

> Talking about conflicts of interest in the attention economy is like talking about conflicts of interest in the money economy. If the introduction of the concept doesn’t clarify anything functionally then it’s a giveaway that you’re broadening the discussion to avoid losing the point.

It's a well established concept and was supported with a concrete example. If you don't feel inclined to address my points, I'm certainly not obligated to dance to your tune.

Your concrete example is Netflix’s CEO saying he doesn’t want to do advertising because he missed the boat and was on Facebook’s board and as a result didn’t believe he had the data to compete as an advertising platform.

Attempting to run ads like Google and Facebook would bring Netflix into direct competition with them, and he knows he doesn’t have the relationships or company structure to support it.

He is explicitly saying they don’t compete. And they don’t.

> > By definition the attention economy dictates that time spent one place can’t be spent in another

Using that definition even the local gokart renting place or the local jetski renting place competes with Facebook.

If you want to use that definition you might want to also add a criteria for minimum size of the company.

> Using that definition even the local gokart renting place or the local jetski renting place competes with Facebook

Not exactly what I had in mind, but sure. Facebook would much rather you never touch grass, jetskis or gokarts.

> If you want to use that definition you might want to also add a criteria for minimum size of the company.

Your feedback is noted.

Do we disagree on whether or not the two FAANG companies in question are in competition with eachother?

> > Do we disagree

I think yes, because Netflix you pay out of pocket, whereas Facebook is a free service

I believe Facebook vs Hulu or regular TV is more of a competition in the attention economy because when the commercial break comes up then you start scrolling your social media on your phone and every 10 posts or whatever you stumble into the ads placed on there so Facebook ads are seen and convert whereas regular tv and hulu aren’t seen and dont convert

> I think yes, because Netflix you pay out of pocket, whereas Facebook is a free service

Do you agree that the following company pairs are competitors?

    * FB : TikTok
    * TikTok : YT
    * YT : Netflix

If so, then by transitive reasoning there is competition between FB and Netflix.

...

To be clear, this is an abuse of logic and hence somewhat tongue in cheek, but I also don't think either of the above comparisons are wholly unreasonable. At the end of the day, it's eyeballs all the way down and everyone wants as many as of them shabriri grapes as they can get.

The two FAANG companies don't compete at a product level, however they do compete for talent, which is significant. Probably significant enough to cause conflicts of interest.

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