Is UX design the ultimate frontier of streaming wars?
In the ever-expanding world of streaming, content is undoubtedly king. But does the battle for eyeballs lead streaming giants to neglect their users? CR examined
It's hard to imagine life without streaming these days. For many of us, our streaming habits are woven into the fabric of everyday life, whether it's Netflix series that rely on Apple Music to get you through your commute or regular down the rabbit hole of weird videos on Youtube.
In the past decade, the rise of major music and TV streaming platforms in particular has been a meteorite. When Spotify was founded in 2006, the Swedish startup largely responded to the music industry's growing piracy problem. Streaming accounts for 75% of all music listening today. Around the same time as Spotify was born, Netflix was just beginning the transition from a DVD rental to a subscription-based streaming service. It had 204 million subscribers by the end of last year.
With video-on-demand services estimated at around £ 40 billion worldwide, it's no surprise that a number of existing entertainment giants have been ready to join the battle, most recently the long-awaited Disney + and HBO Max platforms With almost a quarter of households in the UK already subscribing to two or more services, we have clearly reached the point where there are more streaming services than people are willing to pay for.
Apple Music UX on the iPad
In the past, the main differentiator between major streaming players was the quality and quantity of content they offered. While binge-worthy original series and a huge library of classic film and television might primarily attract users, the secret to keeping subscribers long-term could be how easy a platform is to use?