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Comment by lotsofpulp | Hacker News Reader

Why is Netflix in the "Big Tech" categorization in the "value in market cap" graphic?

I do not see how Netflix's primary business is any different than the businesses in the "Hollywood" categorization that also pay to make media and then sell it.

Apple and Amazon can be in a different category because making and selling media is an ancillary part of their business. Alphabet does not make or curate any media, it just distributes it.

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Netflix pays like a Big Tech company, is valued like a Big Tech company and was part of FAANG. 10 years ago the streaming tech they had was fairly high tech, even if it's now pretty standard. So they're considered Big Tech for historical reason

There was no world that Netflix should have been part of FANG (notice the missing A as original conceived by Cramer). At the time it was coined, Apple was already the most valuable company. But was left out as was Microsoft

It was the companies that were performing well in the stock market. Microsoft and Apple are much older and didn’t have the growth those did.

They also have their own global CDN, while Disney/HBO et al use various third party CDNs.

"Netflix pays like a Big Tech company, is valued like a Big Tech company and was part of FAANG."

That would be circular. The author was trying to show how much smaller hollywood media companies are than big tech.

> I do not see how Netflix's primary business is any different than the businesses in the "Hollywood" categorization that also pay to make media and then sell it

Netflix owns distribution and owns+sells VFX and animation services via Eyeline. Most "Netflix orignals" aren't actually produced by Netflix - Netflix just takes a capital stake in a production that was already in the works by an existing production company.

This made Netflix closer to Valve, and allows their IR team to make a valid case that they should be compared against (and thus deserve a valuation) comparable to other tech companies.

My guess is because Netflix gets money from subscriptions, which is a very different revenue model from traditional Hollywood. But again, completely a guess

I am under the impression traditional Hollywood also got much of its money from subscriptions, it just happened to pass through a middleman known as the cable or satellite TV company. Hence the constant threats of not being able to watch so and so channel due to contract dispute of "carriage fees" or whatever they called the amount per subscriber that a cable/satellite TV company paid Warner Bros/Disney/etc.

Movie studios want billion-dollar box office franchises. Netflix wants to make a show with 7 seasons they can slowly trickle out to keep you paying 20 dollars a month. Netflix prestige acquisitions are a mix of "building the catalog" and ego.

Netflix is a streaming platform first and an entertainment studio second.

Its like youtube if youtube red didnt fail

Netflix may be a streaming platform but it’s streaming mostly Netflix’s content.

The streaming platform and entertainment studio cannot be considered 1st and 2nd things in 2026. The streaming platform is the delivery mechanism of the product made by the entertainment studio, no different than what Disney/Comcast/Paramount/WarnerBros Discovery does.

Youtube Red just got rebranded as Youtube Premium, and does not seem comparable because Youtube does not curate, it just sells advertising spots, and subscriptions to be able to skip ad breaks. You can watch any random person's content on Youtube or Youtube Premium, but you cannot on Netflix/Disney/etc.

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