The Catalyst Code

A recent blog post ponders the future of Amazon’s Unbox video service given its reported inability to “make a dent in Amazon’s business.” This service, which was launched nearly 18 months ago, is a movie download service that allows movies to be downloaded right to set-top boxes (thanks to a partnership with Tivo). Recently, Amazon distributed a survey to its customers asking them to rate their satisfaction with the service and to offer suggestions that might entice them to use it more.

I took a look at the list of questions that Amazon was using to further refine their offer. What is so amazing to me is how unimaginative this list really is. Essentially, this list tells me that Amazon is pretty much going head to head with other well established players trying to deliver movie content into the living room and onto the PC. If Apple TV has yet to make a go of it, I am not sure that things like DVD and Digital Stream or DVD and Digital Copy for an extra fee is going to allow Amazon to crack the code on serving up and monetizing digital movie content.

It strikes me that Amazon is falling into the same trap that everyone else who is trying to make a go of this business has fallen into: thinking like a product company that is competing with others in the movie delivery business and not like a catalyst whose job it is to balance the needs of customers, content owners and others who are part of the movie content ecosystem. The former means focusing primarily on marketing schemes designed to force consumer adoption. The latter requires an entirely new way of looking at the business and treating everyone in the ecosystem as a customer of their platform.

If Amazon really wanted to really break through in much the same way it has done in its core business, it might want to take a page out of the success stories of other platforms that have created barriers to entry that go well beyond the easily replicable price and download speed. It would look at what eBay did to create a sticky platform of buyers and sellers (e.g. its feedback system). It would examine what Facebook has done to create a viral community (e.g. sharing of content from trusted resources). Amazon would look at why some publishing platforms (aka newspapers) are declining in value given their inability to recognize and therefore monetize their true value as an aggregator of quality content. It would also look at how the cable industry has failed in its attempts to get big catalogues of on-demand content given its reluctance to give up any margin; something that can be traced to their inability to think like a platform and treat studios like customers and not the enemy.

So, if they asked me, which they likely won’t, Amazon’s answer to Unbox isn’t whether people prefer DVDs bundled with digital downloads or HD content. It is in creating a community of subscribers who aren’t easily lured away when Apple or Microsoft comes along with a better and possibly cheaper offer.