Why Roku isn’t afraid of competition from Apple, Google and Amazon
For years, the TV streaming platform and hardware maker Roku has had to answer the same question a lot: With Apple, Google, Amazon and other tech giants vying for control of the living room, are you doomed?
Sure, that is some tough competition. But on the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka, Roku CEO Anthony Wood explained that actually, those companies are not as scary as they might seem.
“Those companies used to be small and they had competitors and they, like normally happens in the tech business, when Google for example started search, well, Yahoo was huge and who would have thought you could start a new search company?” Wood recalled. “In the tech business, superior technology often wins and tech companies basically compete on how smart their employees are and the quality of their products.”
And in his view, Roku’s technology is superior. Plus, Apple et al are trying to meet larger strategic goals with TV streaming devices, using them as a trojan horse to get consumers hooked on iOS (or Android, or the Alexa platform).
“We’re much more focused,” Wood said. “All we do is we come to work every day and we think about how to make TV better. Those companies, yes they’re great companies, but they come to work thinking about how can I sell a bunch of shoes, how can I be better at search, how can I sell more phones? TV is on their list but it’s at the bottom of their list.”
Read More - Recode |
