Re:Netflix Is Now Available Around the World
by cookiecaper on Wednesday January 06, 2016 @10:08PM
(#10855710)
I don't know about that. Retail margins are pretty thin. Video seems like it would be much more profitable, and they'd prefer to have people sign up for Prime just to watch videos and never buy anything that requires shipping.
Of course, Amazon's cash cow right now is AWS. It's mind-blowing how much money companies will spend on that just because they resent maintaining their own hardware.
Re:Netflix Is Now Available Around the World
by discodave on Thursday January 07, 2016 @12:55AM
(#10856247)
You're correct that prime is mostly about getting people to buy more stuff. But the purpose of prime video (and music) is ALSO to replace Amazons dying (dead?) revenue streams of selling DVDs (and CDs). That was a huge chunk of Amazons business at one point and they correctly recognized that streaming would eventually replace physical media.
The purpose of Netflix is to provide entertainment. It makes sense for them to be everywhere.
I doubt we'll see Amazon PV around the world anytime soon -- it doesn't make sense for them to spend on the global licensing costs since it won't boost Prime subscriptions.