The Forces Shaping the Q2 Streaming and Social Earnings
Mentioned in this article: Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Instagram, Netflix, Spotify, TikTok, TF1, and YouTube. “The real threat when they organize themselves is YouTube.” These were the words of Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, way back in 2018. And organize themselves they have. Seven years later, as Netflix kicks off the Q2 earnings season—a year after calling YouTube “the other clear leader in D2C entertainment”—that prediction continues to play out: YouTube’s audience growth is on a tear. However, Netflix’s earnings this quarter should continue to be far ahead of YouTube’s. I also anticipate a good print from Spotify, which enjoyed MAU growth throughout Q2, as well as Max and Disney+, both of which should deliver good results—but for different reasons (more on that below). And, in a full circle moment, Instagram (which is growing mobile Time Spent as fast as YouTube) and TikTok are hoping to follow YouTube’s playbook that Hastings rightly perceived as a threat in 2018: they also want to be on TV. Can they make the switch?
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