Time September 21/September 28, 202010 Questionsout that human taste is hugely variable.How many people do you have working
on improving your discovery function?
It depends on the boundaries, but I’d say
roughly 1,000 people.Are those humanists or data scientists?
You need a mix. You have a bunch of
humanists sort of generating hypotheses,
but they don’t know exactly what’s possible.
And then you have a bunch of data scientists
who are really good at what’s possible.What are you thinking hard about these
days? How do we share content around
the world? Usually the linear networks,
the HBOs and ABCs of the world, are very
nation- specific. And we’re trying to do
something where we have great French
movies in America, where we have great
German movies in the U.K. We’re try-
ing to share the world’s content, and it’s
challenging.How much are you spending on content
annually? $15 billion.Are you as impressed as the rest of
the world by TikTok? In the earnings
letter, I talked about it, as there’s lots
of innovation left in the world, and
TikTok’s growth against YouTube and
Facebook is quite remarkable.As they say in business school, what
is your target addressable market?
Humans on the Internet who enjoy
entertainment.Modest goals. Netflix and chill has
become part of the popular lexicon.
How do you feel about your corporate
name being part of a euphemism for
sexual activity? It’s not a campaign
we created. We love it that we’re
important enough to people’s lives
that they use us in various references,
but we neither built that nor do we exploit
it. I would say it’s recognition of how
significant we’ve become for many people.
—eben ShapiroD
o you remember that there was a
time in this country when people
received little plastic discs in
the mail in red envelopes? That’s crazy!
We still have 2 million DVD members,
because on DVD you get a comprehensive
selection —we have all the HBO stuff, every
movie ever made. And then of course it
works in deep rural areas where we don’t
yet have broadband.You built a company that transformed
the global media landscape, yet you
wrote a book on corporate culture,
not the future of entertainment and
technology. Why? We don’t want to give
away our secrets in entertainment.When you were still building the
company in the 2000s, I interviewed
you and you were pretty combative,
maybe even a brilliant jerk. If I came
across that way, then it’s just personal
failings; it’s not intention.Many of the rules in your book—have
a talent-dense company, pay top dollar—
may work well at a company that’s
minting money, but are not possible
for many companies. For most of our
corporate life, we’ve been nearly broke,
losing money, and not the Yankees or the
Patriots. And so whatever our budget is,
though, we’d rather have the talent density.
I think we actually get more done with that.For a CEO, you have an unusual
take on making decisions. A good
quarter would be one where I made
no decisions, a no-hitter. I haven’t had
that yet. But mostly my job is to inspire
people, excite them: How can we serve
the customer better? I’m sort of educating,
coaching, cheerleading, guiding—but I’m
not making decisions.What grade would you give your search
and discovery features, which help
subscribers find new movies and shows
that they might enjoy? Well, internally,
I say we suck, compared to how good we
want to be in three years. It’s hard. It turnsReed Hastings The Netflix co-CEO
on company secrets, his new book,
No Rules Rules, and chilling
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