Now that Netflix chief executive and founder Reed Hastings is on Facebook's board of directors, many are speculating that means the two companies could be more closely intertwined.
With the next tech battle possibly taking place on television screens, Netflix's partnership with Facebook could only be beneficial when competing with other video streaming services such as Hulu, and competition from cable providers Comcast and Time Warner, according to Forbes. With Facebook, the world's largest social network, Netflix has ready-made access to about 150 million U.S. users. Take that, Xfinity!
In March, Facebook began streaming $3 movies in a deal with Warner Bros. and it's likely Netflix and others paid attention. According to Seeking Alpha, Hastings wrote in a note to investors that the company was exploring Facebook integration in January. However, by April, his tune seemed to change, saying that pay-per-view activity on Facebook and iTunes posed no "material" threat to Netflix. Luckily for Hastings, the winds of change shifted and Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wanted him on the board -- likely for his business and video-streaming acumen.
Facebook is also readying photo and video sharing projects, which can only be improved with Hastings' streaming video knowledge and customer service savvy. So the partnership may be truly symbiotic, with both Hastings and Zuckerberg getting exactly what they want from each other.
