Netflix CEO Reed Hastings broke with his big tech peers Monday when he argued the company is actually more of a media operation than a tech one, Recode reported.
div > div.group > p:first-child"> Many of the other big tech firms have resisted labeling themselves as media companies and instead opted for the label of"platforms" where users supply the content. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for example, has repeatedly made the distinction between his company and traditional media firms. In 2016, he said,"We build the tools, we do not produce any content," according to Reuters.
But as regulators and politicians have turned their eyes toward tech companies, Hastings has taken a decidedly different approach in calling Netflix a media company. While valued like a tech company with a market cap of nearly $159 billion, Hastings said the distribution of spending at Netflix makes it a media company.
"[W]e're really mostly a content company powered by tech," Hastings said, according to Recode, since the company spends $1.2 billion on technology and about $10 billion on video programming. Hasting's response came after Recode asked about the role U.S. lawmakers should play in regulating tech companies when it comes to privacy and antitrust. Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, called out Netflx's FAANG peers — Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google — in her plan to "break up Big Tech.
Good give it a Media multiple!
Netflix will soon have advertisements in between shows. Just wait...
Are they sure they want to identify as that right now, considering how Fatty Twitterbuckle Blowhole Pants blames the media for everything?