this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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I can’t say I’m terribly surprised. Many people are too lazy to pirate and the alternative services are also pricy now. Cable and satellite companies did the same stuff before streaming, and most people were too hooked on the product to abandon it.
The comments in a Reddit and Lemmy post are not indicative of broader behavior. Just because everyone in the comments says they’re bailing, that doesn’t mean Netflix is screwed. This is a bubble.
With massive businesses in the US, I operate on one very simple assumption: Americans will take anything. Low quality products, price hikes, evil behavior— nearly 100% of the time, it doesn’t matter. Americans will take it lying down.
Very rarely, there will be significant pushback. Usually this leads to a minor walking back, but the thing that was tried will probably be tried again. Among hundreds of “this is now worse” decisions, maybe two or three are actually significantly haltered or occasionally truly stopped every year.
I don’t even really blame them. American consumers have been treated like absolute shit for so long, and the draw of escapism on TV is probably hard to resist.
Nothing to do with Americans specifically. Netflix gains are worldwide.
Well, yeah, and I suppose with the erosion in rights and healthcare in other countries too, maybe humans are just not great at standing up to power.
Perhaps it’s just that, as an American, I am quite frustrated at the lack of respect corporations offer customers. Recently I’ve noticed a lot of skincare buyouts and subsequent shit tier reformulations, but they’re often done by French companies. Maybe it’s more a western thing— I typically buy most of my stuff while in Japan these days because their companies at least continue to provide good products. But their culture treats workers horribly so it’s not exactly ideal there either.