This One Netflix Integration Needs To Happen
Binge-watching television has become a national pastime. Judging by the recent election, it might be the only thing holding this country together.
Netflix, and other streaming services, pressure viewers into streaming more than they want to watch. They do this by starting a brief countdown during the credits of one episode, before playing the next.
This automatic countdown applies a frantic pressure out of nowhere. It has all the intensity of dismantling a bomb. It snaps the viewer out of their vegetative state and forces them to make a consequential decision.
Netflix autoplays the next episode for the same reason there are no clocks in casinos or IKEA—they want us to stay.
This countdown is so powerful, Netflix could upsell viewers too. Just like a candy bar on display in the checkout line at the grocery store, Netflix could exploit the viewer’s lack of will power by integrating with the food delivery service DoorDash. It would be a match made in Silicon Valley heaven.
The Concept
This design reduces friction by predetermining the viewer’s selection based on their history. The trade-off is the viewer has to override presets in some cases.
Select: It’s easy to choose a meal in this design, because the viewer’s most frequent order is selected by default. DoorDash already stores this data.
Confirm: After reviewing the relevant details of the delivery, the viewer confirms the purchase and DoorDash charges their account.
Watch: When the viewer finishes their order, there is a confirmation screen to dismiss, before the viewer can start the next episode.
The Purpose
Apps like Slack have proven the value of integrations in recent years. From a business perspective, integrations are great for exposure and stickiness.
Much like featuring a rapper on a track by a similar artist, integrations introduce platforms to new groups of targeted users. Then as users adopt both platforms, it becomes more difficult to migrate off of either one.
The value proposition for the user is even more straightforward. Logging into a gazillion different platforms to perform one-off tasks doesn’t make any sense. Accessing DoorDash on a laptop or mobile phone is an extra step that compromises the pure escapism of binge-watching #FirstWorldProblems
While there is an argument that these shortcuts make us lazy, the purpose of software is to make life easier. If streaming Netflix while eating DoorDash makes hardworking members of society more relaxed before going back to work the next day, then this integration would be worth every line of code.
This post isn’t affiliated with Netflix, DoorDash, or Tacolicious. Shocker.
