Understanding the consumer behaviour, pre and post-acquisition for paid-subscription online video streaming

Abstract

The growth and penetration on internet services and cellular phone technology lead firms in various industries to extend their presence to the new channel to reach the customer in more effective ways and with increased and easier exposure. Many industries completely restructured themselves and as a result, there have been examples where the market leaders themselves collapsed into bankruptcy. The online video streaming industry is no different where the environment caused an entire industry (home video rental) to restructure themselves and Blockbuster is a classic example where the market leader fell because it didn’t evolve with environmental changes. Even for the firms who follow the concept of omnichanneling, their online and offline customer exhibits different behaviour. The same customer is subjected to different set of stimulus and experience when you compare the two channels. Subscription-based online services and more narrowly, the free-trial induced subscription services in the video streaming industry are proofs for this. Given the case, it is meritorious to learn and understand the customer behaviour in these kind of environments.