Comment by kingstoned
4 days ago
Netflix is not easier, but marketed heavily and competition is censored in search results. Some random pirating streaming site is unknown and probably not even easily discoverable on google (you have to use yandex for that).
I stick to pirating with adblockers because it is more convenient, there is a much bigger library of content and I don't have to share any personal info or pay for anything.
If you know the words “yandex” and “adblocker” you are already 90th percentile ability to pirate content
Netflix is absolutely easier to use than any form of pirating for the vast majority of their userbase.
Everyone in this thread talking about how people will “just get a VPN” to use TikTok have zero concept of the technical abilities of TikTok’s user base
What's amazing about this comment chain is that it's totally wrong. Netflix is missing tons of content, like older movies, and tries to replace them with store-brand "originals" that everyone knows are garbage or only have a couple seasons before being cut. It lost its most popular product, The Office. Netflix literally cannot serve the product its users want the most, so the "easiness" of using netflix to get that product is 0.
The particular shows don't matter to most of Netflix's customers. Piracy to them is someone in a dark room wearing a balaclava with a laughing ASCII skull on their laptop. The ones that care about "The Office" will either throw up their hands and watch whatever suggestion Netflix has for them, or they'll subscribe to Peacock.
Netflix has succeeded in diluting what product its users want from "The Office" to "something funny". Why hunt for one specific show when it will throw a million options at you?
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Netflix's death has been greatly exaggerated on HN. It's not popular with us, and for good reasons, but it's ever more popular both in terms of subscribers and viewer hours. It's not the easiest to always get the exact and best content you want but it's the best to get okay content any time. The latter tends to drive the average user.
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So whoever wants The Office so much, and hasn't seen it already, pays for Peacock.
Even just having a PC hooked up to your TV in the first place is rare. People have locked-down smart TVs or STBs.
I used to pirate, went to Netflix because it was easy, and recently went back to pirating. Not because pirating became easier... but because Netflix became shit enough for pirating to be worth the bother.
I wouldn't mind paying if it wasn't setup in a way like "oh want to watch that movie? subscribe to this service" at one point I was paying for maybe 5 different providers eg. Apple TV, Netflix, Disney+, HBOMax, etc...
> Netflix is not easier, but marketed heavily and competition is censored in search results.
Did you just confirm the parent poster point while also denying it.