Why Hulu Actually Worked July 8th, 2009
The New York Times has a new article out that is making the rounds in the technology wolrd, concerning the success of Hulu. It’s surprisingly lucid, in all honesty, but it leaves out some important points that we need raise. Hulu’s success and ascendant traffic cannot be attributed to a single cause, it is far too complex for that. Let’s break down the important points.
- Unrivaled access to content: Sure, Hulu is owned by the conglomerates, but that does not guarantee access to their best content. Hulu, however, has a deep index of the quickly updating content from most of the most popular shows on television. How can the lax and lazy consumer say no?
- Well designed: When I first heard of Hulu ages past from Michael Arrrington I assumed it was going to look like trash, and navigate poorly. To my great surprise, the site is clean, the content easy to find, and the video player simple and powerful. Who what have thought.
- Attacking pirates: Piracy takes time. First you navigate the porn spam and virus laden torrent website. Then you must wait patiently while the files torrent, pray that they are what you thought they were, and then dodge more viruses. That was still the best solution (disregarding morality) before Hulu. Now, if I want to watch show X, I can be lazy and watch it on Hulu. PirateBay what?
- High quality streaming: Hulu streaming has two quality levels: decent, and pretty good. I found that I can full screen the higher level on my larger monitor and have is be more than tolerable. All this streaming? Damn.
- Limited advertising: This is the final place where Hulu does an excellent job. No more sitting at the television and watching 5 commercials every 4 minutes. Instead, a handful of short ads. Sometimes you can even watch just one ad upfront and then run the show straight through without interruption.
I am sure that this list is incomplete, but it is an outline of the reasons that Hulu is excelling. The question that this all leads to, is whether Hulu will eventually be able to take a large bite out of traditional television audiences and move them online?
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