What makes you hooked on Netflix?
Hard to believe? Let me explain this to you…
Netflix was initially founded in 1997 as a DVD delivery service. And today it is over 139 million subscribers worldwide and is one of the most leading streaming service. A service allowing its customers to watch a variety of content including TV shows, movies, documentaries and much more. Netflix has evolved so much through the years. The current design makes the experience so much more seamless and interesting for the users.
Fun fact; Did you know 15% of the world’s web traffic goes to Netflix?
Netflix in their recent design use a lot of psychological principles. Knowingly or unknowingly you are falling for the trap they set for you.
- Using Endowment Effect- Most of you must’ve started using Netflix by availing the free 30-day trial period. In this trial period, you use as much as possible and if your experience using it has been good then you get a bit attached to it and that’s when you extend the subscription by paying for it. Since we already have the subscription, unsubscribing seems like a really hard thing to do. You’d prefer extending the subscription rather than unsubscribing to it. If you had to pay at the initial stage when you had not used Netflix, you probably wouldn’t have even wanted the subscription. But now since you experienced it for the past 30 days, it is of some value or meaning to you.
We all have some invaluable possessions, which we can’t imagine giving up or throwing away. Thats what the endowment effect is all about. It refers to the way humans tend to prefer objects they already possess over those they do not. Humans place a higher value on an object that are asked to give up, rather on a similar object asked to obtain. This principle helps stimulate users to buy the company product or service.
For example, according to a study done by Knetsch and Sinden in 1984, they found that their participants were unwilling to trade the lottery tickets they were given first for money, despite having an obvious risk free value. The participants being resistant to giving back the tickets, proves that people are unwilling to part with what they own once they have fostered a sense of attachment or belongingness.
2. Using Reciprocity Principle- Netflix asked its customers, “What one thing would you like to know more about before signing up for Netflix?” and the most popular answer was that they wanted to know all the movies and TV shows available.
What do you think the best solution would be? Show a list of movies and TV shows on the homepage? But that would loose out on the suspense! What if the movie the user wanted to watch wasn’t on that list, Netflix would end up loosing a potential subscriber rather than gaining.
Netflix came up with many designs showing all the content available, but the reaction was opposite to what they had expected. Users would get distracted by the various content provided. After browsing, they never signed up.
To solve this problem, Netflix came up with a banner that shows some movies and TV shows. This banner made customers satisfied enough to sign up yet curious to know about all content.
The reciprocity principle is one of the basic laws of social psychology: It says that in many social situations we pay back what we received from others. In other words, if John does you a favor, you’re likely to return it to him.
3. Idleness aversion- It’s a common belief that people feel happier if they’re left idle, but that’s incorrect! A recent study on human psychology suggests that humans are happier when they are engaged in various activities. Users without any activity to do while browsing through their phone/laptop end up being frustrated and bored. This is why many companies start having interactive states.
For example, google chrome provides a simple game to play with while there is no internet connection
Netflix used this same principle by playing the video thumbnails when mouse hovers on it or even when you check more info. This helps users get a better idea and context as to what the TV show/movie is about. Even if you only open the info page to view the details, the video auto playing makes you engrossed in it. After the video preview, they can decide whether to watch the full episode or no. Though auto-play feature is frustrating for some users (including me), it has been more advantageous than the play trailer option for users.
Let me know what are your thoughts on this.
Thank you for reading! :)
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