Netflix wants you to watch ‘Clips,’ its TikTok-like vertical…
Netflix is redesigning its mobile app and introducing Clips, a vertical video feed intended to help users discover new content by sharing highlights from original Netflix programming. “Think of ‘Clips’ as a personalized highlight reel that helps you decide what to watch or play next, without endless scrolling,” Netflix wrote in a press release. “You’ll see short clips from series, films and specials tailored to your tastes, with an easy way to go deeper when something grabs your attention.” The idea is that if you’re on the go, you likely aren’t going to pull out your phone to watch the next three minutes of the “Love is Blind” episode you’re on. But you might watch a short, curated clip of another Netflix show for a fast laugh (which is exactly what Netflix named a similar feature, Fast Laughs , in 2021).
We may have rolled our eyes five years ago when every social media platform rushed to release a TikTok copycat feature, but now, even LinkedIn is pushing vertical video on its mobile app. Netflix, for its part, has experimented for years with how to incorporate short-form video, and the company seems to have settled on Clips.
The microdrama industry –bite-sized episodic series, typically under 10 minutes per episode, designed to be watched on a phone screen — which first caught on in Asia, is building momentum in the U.S., making users more accustomed to watching serialized stories on vertical feeds. Other streamers like Peacock and Tubi are also adding vertical video experiences on mobile.
At TechCrunch Disrupt last October, Netflix Chief Product and Technology Officer Elizabeth Stone talked about Netflix’s experimentation with vertical video but said that Netflix isn’t trying to compete with TikTok. “[Netflix] is not intending to copy or chase exactly what a TikTok or others are doing because we think that there’s a certain type of entertainment — or moment of truth — that’s especially valuable to our members, and we really want to be focused there, versus trying to be all things at every moment, which I don’t think needs to be a core part of the strategy,” Stone said at the time. OpenAI ends Microsoft legal peril over its $50B Amazon deal DeepMind’s David Silver just raised $1.1B to build an AI that learns without human data OpenAI could be making a phone with AI agents replacing apps The Stanford freshmen who want to rule the world … will probably read this book and try even harder Two college kids raise a $5.1 million pre-seed to build an AI social network in iMessage Meta’s loss is Thinking Machines’ gain Google to invest up to $40B in Anthropic in cash and compute
Analysis: Why This Matters
When companies make decisions involving April Tickets, the ripple effects often hit competitors, investors, and consumers within weeks.
Key Takeaways
- She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos.
- She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider.
- She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J.
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Source: TechCrunch