Hulu or Netflix: In the game of streaming video, you win or you socialize
However, Hulu is by far the more dominant streaming service when it comes to social interaction, according to data collected by social media listening firm Mashworks.
“In terms of a ‘A to B’ comparison, we were surprised by how unsocial the Netflix users were,” said Mashworks founder Brian Feldman, who highlighted the large discrepancy between Netflix and Hulu total subscribers.
The quickest way for Hulu Plus to best a monster competitor like Netflix is through social integration and interaction, Feldman said. “Obviously [Hulu] is at a disadvantage because they’re late to the game, but Hulu has a social component the company is using to grow [its] subscribers.”
Mashworks filtered over 10,000 tweets mentioning people’s preferences regarding Netflix, Hulu Plus and traditional cable services. The results revealed that 29 percent of the tweets preferred Netflix — 9 percent higher than the number of tweets preferring Hulu Plus. Considering how many more Netflix users there are, Feldman said he expected the percentage to be much higher over Hulu.
The data also indicated that many people have yet to try the Hulu Plus service, which means the company’s subscriptions could potentially grow much larger over time. Hulu itself is reporting higher than expected growth rates to its subscriptions, according to the company’s 2011 second quarter progress report.
Hulu recently relaunched Facebook integration that offers a new feature letting people comment on specific portions of a video using a their Facebook account. The company’s first attempt at integration resulted in security breaches for some users, but the overall backlash was minimum.
“There is a lack of social media integration on Netflix. Obviously that’s a conscious effort the company has made for whatever reason,” Feldman said.
Part of the reason Netflix isn’t as eager to add socialization features to its streaming service could have something to do with its library of content, which consists entirely of licensed media from outside companies.
Hulu, on the other hand, has more of an ownership mentality, since three of the four partners that own the streaming service (Disney, Comcast and News Corp.) are media companies.
Below is an infographic displaying the results of the Twitter-data gathered by Mashworks. As the data shows, Hulu’s strong social media presence could make the company a serious video streaming service competitor in the future.
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