Case in point: 'Netflix and chill' is now a relatively established term. You don't become part of people's vocabulary if you're not an ingrained part of culture.

That may have been true 10 years ago when netflix's sole focus was growth, but they are pretty much a dominant player at this point. Once you get to a certain saturation level or market share, it's more about customer retention than growth since there is less room to grow and it's more costly.

The problem is that there is a fixed amount of time in a day and people's focus is a zero sum game. If more people are playing fortnite, less people are watching netflix. If more people are watching youtube, less people are watching mainstream tv.

There are only X amount of watch time for this world. The battle between all media companies is over that share. It's the cause of tension between traditional media and social media and why traditional media has been so forcefully demanding a privileged place within social media. There is only a finite number of hours for people's attention.

To propose a less cynical alternative, high screen time means users are deriving a lot of utility from the service and are unlikely to end their subscriptions.

I've heard from Netflix employees that retention stabilizes once a certain number of hours per month are watched on an account.

I think that optimizing for time watched is genius for Netflix for exactly the reason stated above. Of course it helps drive retention, but the ultimate benefit is netflix-izing our culture so that a subscription is just necessary for our social life.

Has Netflix, or other stabbing services, increased screen use overall? If Fortnite is a competitor doesn't that show to some extent that viewers limit screen time: or is it only natural limits (job, school/work, hours in a day) that are in effect?