It seems that YouTube is continuing to dilute what made the site great among so many users on the internet. In the early days of YouTube, categories used to mean something, now they are largely just a legacy feature which they haven’t removed for some reason. It’s probably because they are sentimental about it. This sentimentality does not seem to integrate well their incessant desire to obsess with putting ads into every part of the site.
Instead of putting ads everywhere, why don’t they try to focus on improving the categories.
However, it seems YouTube is destined to be flooded with tons of ads after spending years letting people upload for free and without fees on the site.
Mercari is a website that offers casual selling for internet users. It was founded in Japan, making it one of those odd Japanese native sites that actually has a presence in America. The site has been struggling to make money in America but I just created an account today and I just listed my first item, a Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones DVD, widescreen; this DVD came in an age when DVDs were important to the revenue stream of movie companies. I have already gotten 10 views after putting it on the site.
The question that I am asking here is this: Is Mercari the future of Japanese E-Commerce dominance?
Japan, being a society driven by the willingness to maintain its traditions was slower to embrace the internet than the United States. The Japanese mentality was to focus more on integrating mobile internet into their daily lives. However, this also meant that Japan was focused on its hardware not the software. This focus on hardware would prove one of the reasons why Japan fell behind in Information Technology while America and China continued to innovate in software engineering.
Mercari is the odd one out and represents something interesting in Japan. This is a Japanese site that has gotten much traction among the public in the country. In America it has been struggling somewhat but based on my interactions with the site, it seems that there is steady number of users who are trying to sell on there.
eBay is already heavily entrenched in the ecommerce market in America. Can Mercari really make a difference and gain a foothold in America.
What I think that Mercari has is the ease of use. Unlike the eBay app, Mercari makes it easy to sell items online. Ebay has entrenched buyers who have been on the site for many years and it makes it tough for someone just starting out to sell on there.
All it takes to list an item is to put in a couple boxes and you have a listing and people are ready to buy it. Ebay is better for power sellers, but it can be very confusing for a generation of users who grew up mostly interacting with the internet on phones not their desktops. Mercari is prefect fit for many Millennials and Gen Z types who simply want a storefront without all the messiness involved with it.
That is why I think in spite of the struggles it has having now, Mercari will probably be successful in at least Japan and then spread out to other countries. It is great that we are now going to get some competition in ecommerce. Competition will make the internet great again.
Netflix is the king of streaming or even content now. I have seen it grow from a big company into an even bigger company that now seems to have Hollywood as a vassal state which would have been seen unthinkable in the 2000s. Netflix was profitable in the 2000s and was causing huge amounts of chaos at Blockbuster but it was still in that niche of being a rental place, not a studio making its own stories.
Fast forward to now, Netflix would be home to Douglas Fairbanks had it been a studio in the Silent Era before the release of the Jazz Singer.
Netflix rules filmed content in a similar way to the big studios from the 1920s to the 1950s. They were incredibly powerful institutions, nations within America with their own culture and hiearchies. They brought the faces of amazing actors to the screens.
What is Netflix great goal here?
Netflix is not Hollywood, at least in the sense of how we once understood it. Netflix is a fusion of both Television and Cinema. It is the true HBO in the sense of that label the old Cable TV channel uses. The Home Box Office is what Netflix truly is now. It is more of a box office than HBO was in the early 1980s.
However, can it truly live up to such a title?
Netflix is making show after show about young people in pods who date someone on the other side of that pod without even seeing them. This is the Love is Blind series. Its based on the axiom: Love is Blind. This axiom governs the show’s production. It is an interesting premise for sure, ignoring the Bachelor or Bachelorette shows, which have tons of in-person drama between the characters. Love is Blind does not have any of that here. It is about romance behind a hidden screen.
However, they are making equivalent shows for many other nations. Even Italy is getting a show now.
Netflix has been making more reality tv shows than ever before?
Why?
The simple reason: Cost.
Netflix was making alot of content in the years before the pandemic. However, in this age?
Netflix is basically becoming basic television again.
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