On content as king, product as king, and why content is the product
Last night, I watched Star Wars for the first time.
Facts first: It is 2020. It was Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. We made it 50 minutes before pausing for the night.
Feel free to judge for all of those reasons. But I would merely say, better late than never! And big thank you to my friend who finally got us to watch.
As I awoke this morning, and thought about how the only way we could watch this film was through Disney+, I recalled that oft-uttered phrase “Content is king.” I wondered that instead of Disney+, could I have just used Amazon?
No. I could not. That is the entire point. Disney owns the content, so you have to use the Disney+ streaming service.
Content is king. But why?
Upon further thought, it is because content is the product. No one subscribes to Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+ for its amazing video player where you can fast forward 8X or easily find how to disable captions. It is the content.
I then recalled an event I attended where an early product leader at Hulu gave a talk. One of the things that he said that changed how I thought about product was that he spent most of his time doing business development. He said that he was focused on securing the best content for the platform, because content was the product. It changed how I think about product because it helped me realize and affirm that product, and ultimately, business is about solving problems. So if it requires identifying content, negotiating licensing, securing financing, whatever - you do it. People will convert from free to paid not for the features - even something like autoplay or skipping intros - but for the content.
This, of course, is why Original Content has been such a big play for Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and others. Indeed, we would never think twice if Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, or Apple said they were going to build their own algorithms or iPhones. Why? Those are the products they build and that consumers crave. Consumers crave content from content providers, and the same way Netflix transitioned from mail-in DVDs to streaming anything, there may have also been a shift of providing the existing content digitally to providing the best content possible, once providing content digitally became table-stakes. As HBO, Amazon, and Disney all had their own streaming services in the last five years, the ability to have a digital viewing experience no longer was a moat. It became about the content again. Indeed, it was always about the content because the content is the product, and consumers have prioritized whatever product they are buying - whether it’s a textile in an outdoor market or a viewing experience on Saturday night.