奈飞和亚马逊：谁的视频更好？

上周，亚马逊（Amazon）宣布开放Prime的月度会员服务，借此与视频点播的竞争对手进行更直接的抗衡。不过，众所周知，流媒体服务总是闭口不谈自己究竟能提供多少内容，那我们又如何肯定哪种选择才是最好的？

谢天谢地，美国全国广播公司财经频道（CNBC）的马克•费伊对亚马逊和奈飞（Netflix）的视频数量和质量进行了极其细致的对比，并得到了一些真相——其中许多都不符合我们的直觉。

CNBC的初步统计发现，亚马逊Prime的视频比奈飞公司更多，用户给它们的评分也要更高。但正如主持人埃里克•谢米所说，你需要看到原始数据之外的东西。

事实证明，亚马逊上有约900个视频的长度都不到10分钟，奈飞的短视频却只有30个。而且亚马逊的许多视频可能只有很少的受众——例如，CNBC选取了一段九分半钟的动画视频，这个视频的目的是教会小孩读懂地图上的X/Y轴。

该视频得到了五星评价——不过评论只有一条，而五颗星就是这么来的。CNBC发现亚马逊的视频中，有许多都只有一条评论。他们还发现针对同样的视频内容，亚马逊的用户倾向于给出更高的评分，这也拉大了对两个公司视频整体质量的印象分。

这是否意味着亚马逊试图欺骗用户？不一定。不过这确实意味着，把奈飞和亚马逊的视频内容进行直接比较很困难。再考虑到亚马逊Prime会员不仅可以看视频、听音乐——当然还有最重要的，享受免费快递，两家的取舍就更加复杂了。

这种直接比较的困难，让奈飞打造独家优质内容的策略显得十分明智，也解释了为什么亚马逊要推出《透明家庭》（Transparent）和《丛林中的莫扎特》（Mozart in the Jungle）等电视剧，从而尝试与对手在同一维度竞争。(财富中文网)

译者：严匡正

Last week, Amazon announced a monthly Prime option to compete more directly with its streaming rivals. But with streaming services notoriously close-mouthed about exactly how much content they offer, how can you decide which option is best for you?

Thankfully, Mark Fahey at CNBC has done anobsessively granular comparison of the amount and quality of video available for streaming on Amazonand Netflix. And he came up with some real insights—many counterintuitive.

CNBC’s initial tally found that Amazon Prime streaming has more titles than Netflix, and that more of them had high ratings from users. But, as host Eric Chemi puts it, you gotta go beyond the raw numbers.

Around 900 titles on Amazon, it turns out, are under 10 minutes long, compared to just 30 short titles on Netflix. And Amazon’s videos include many that are likely to have pretty narrow appeal—as an example, CNBC excerpts a nine and a half minute animated video teaching kids how to read X/Y coordinates on a map.

That video does have a five-star rating—but it’s based on just a single review. CNBC found that a lot of Amazon ratings were based on just a single user review. They also found that Amazon users gave the same content a higher rating than Netflix users did, inflating the impression of overall quality.

Does all this mean Amazon is trying to snow users? Not particularly. But it does mean that directly comparing the content on Netflix and Amazon is tough, if not impossible. That complicates an already tricky decision, considering that Amazon Prime membership can bundle video, music—and of course free shipping, the real jewel in the crown.

The difficulty of a direct comparison makes Netflix’s strategy of building its brand on premium, exclusive content look very smart—and explains why Amazon, with shows like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle, is trying to chart the same course.