當你在假日季觀看《蒙上你的眼》（Bird Box）、《黑鏡：潘達斯奈基》（Black Mirror: Bandersnatch）或再次觀看百看不厭的《辦公室》（The Office）時，Netflix卻上演了一出自編自導的鬧劇——任命前動視暴雪的首席財務官斯賓塞·紐曼擔任新首席財務官。

就在這一新聞曝光之前，暴雪突然宣布炒紐曼魷魚，而且紐曼也同意了暴雪提出的條件——直到當前聘用合同還剩6個月時才會尋找新的工作。很明顯，紐曼并不愿意失去在Netflix工作的機會，盡管這是一家有著雄心壯志、極其燒錢的媒體公司。

新公司授予紐曼的職責十分明確。《華爾街日報》在標題中做出了這樣一番描述：“新Netflix首席財務官受命應對現金流難題”。

熱播的原創驚悚電視劇，例如《蒙上你的眼》或由觀眾決定劇情走向的嘗試劇目《黑鏡：潘達斯奈基》，并不便宜。隨著Netflix公眾知名度的日益提升，其虧損也是水漲船高。分析師預測，公司2018年財報可能會出現30億美元的負現金流，較往年的20億美元進一步惡化。天價高品質電視節目的忠實觀眾們自然希望公司能夠解決其資產負債問題。

對于Netflix來說，最顯而易見的解決方案莫過于提升其視頻流服務注冊用戶的數量。其核心增長策略到目前為止已經得到了回報。最近，公司已經開始著眼于國際市場，為全球不同的國家制作內容。作為其中的舉措之一，公司可能還會進一步提升其注冊費。

另一個有待檢驗的方式是：花更多的心思去迎合那些活躍用戶，而不是不怎么活躍的用戶。就這一點而言，公司還有很多地方需要向迪士尼以及紐曼的前任雇主動視暴雪學習。這兩家公司十分擅長以截然不同的方式，向消費其內容的客戶收取費用，而且其費率因用戶的不同有著巨大的差異。就《星戰》系列而言，迪士尼不僅僅收取電影門票費。如果你是一名超級粉絲的話，你可以購買活動人偶，前往迪士尼主題公園或在Netflix上觀看《克隆人戰爭》。公司有無數種方法，利用客戶對特定版權商品的癡迷度，來提升其銷售額。

視頻游戲行業對于此舉有一個行業術語——鯨魚。很多公司營收的相當大一部分便來自于相對較小的受眾，而且當前游戲開發的初衷便是最大程度地從那些心甘情愿的玩家手中賺錢，這體現為在游戲中銷售戰利品箱、虛擬道具以及推出特別版游戲。動視暴雪還在探索通過電子競技來進一步實現其熱賣游戲的貨幣化。

如今，Netflix對于大多數人實行同等金額的收費，這一點與其消費的內容無關。當然，人們可以略微多付點錢，便可以獲得Netflix超清節目，但迪士尼和動視暴雪的案例證明，增加收入的方法有很多種，而且無需靠販賣內容。不妨參考一下WarnerMedia旗下HBO的精英電影套餐，與節目有關的商品，以及其他類型的通過應用購買。

第三種改善現金流的辦法無非就是節流。對于新任首席財務官來說，這看起來似乎是個頗有吸引力的策略，但我認為這一點Netflix并不能完全說了算。如果你像Netflix那樣把“成為一家無與倫比的全球媒體公司”看作是理所當然的事情，那么你就得以此為基礎進行逆向思考。Netflix需要花重金來聘用能夠實現這一目標的人才。

去年，有媒體報道稱Netflix斥資至少1.5億美元來“引誘”制片人桑德·萊姆斯加入其團隊。萊姆斯在推特（Twitter）上是這樣說的：“為什么記者們總喜歡用‘引誘’編劇的辭令？就像我們是一群跟著地上糖果誘餌走的孩子一樣。我利用我的想象力為大型公司帶來了20多億美元的營收。我不會跟著糖走，我自己就是糖。”（財富中文網）

譯者：馮豐

審校：夏林

While you spent the holidays streaming Bird Box, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and/or re-watching The Office for the hundredth time, Netflix was playing out a corporate drama of its own—poaching Activision Blizzard Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann to be its new CFO.

Just before the news emerged, Activision abruptly announced that it would fire Neumann, who had agreed to a provision that barred him from negotiating for a new job until the last six months of his contract. It was a clear sign that Neumann wasn’t willing to pass up a chance to work at Netflix, this era’s preeminent high-flying, money-burning media company.

Neumann’s mandate at the company is clear. A Wall Street Journal headline put it this way: “New Netflix CFO to Tackle Cash Flow Conundrum.”

Buzzy original thrillers like Bird Box, or choose-your-own-adventure gambits like Bandersnatch aren’t cheap. And as Netflix’s public profile has climbed, so have its losses. Analysts predict that the company will report about $3 billion in negative cash flow for 2018, up from $2 billion in the previous year. Fans of wildly expensive, high-quality television should hope the company can figure out its balance sheet.

The most obvious solution is for Netflix to just continue to increase the number of people who subscribe to its video-streaming service. Its core growth strategy has paid off so far. And recently, the company has taken on a more global focus, creating content for countries all over the world. As part of this approach, it could also further increase the price of a subscription.

Another, more untested path would be to cater more to active users over less engaged ones. This is where the company has a lot to learn from Disney and Activision, Neumann’s former employers. Both of those companies—in very different ways—do a great job of charging different customers vastly disparate amounts of money for consuming their content. Disney doesn’t just charge you for a ticket to see Star Wars. If you’re a superfan, you can buy action figures, go to a Disney theme park or watch The Clone Wars on Netflix. There are endless ways to upsell customers based on their affection for a particular piece of intellectual property.

The video game industry has a term for this—whales. Many companies make the bulk of their revenue from a relatively small group of people, and modern games are built to extract the maximum amount from those willing to pay. That means selling in-game loot boxes, virtual items and special game editions. Activision is also exploring e-sports to further monetize its popular titles.

Right now, Netflix charges most people the same amount, no matter how much they consume. Sure, you can pay slightly more for Netflix Ultra HD, but as the Disney and Activision examples illustrate, there are plenty of way to charge more without metering content. Think elite movie packages akin to WarnerMedia’s HBO, merchandise tied to shows or some other version of in-app purchases.

A third path for improving cash flow would be to simply spend less money. This might seem like an appealing tactic for a new CFO, but I’d argue the levers here are partly out of Netflix’s control. If you take for granted, as Netflix does, that it wants to be a once-in-a-generation global media company, then you need to work backwards from there. Netflix needs to pay what it costs to hire talent.

Last year, there were media reports that Netflix paid at least $150 million to “lure” showrunner Shonda Rhimes to its staff. Rhimes, on Twitter, broke it down this way: “Why do reporters always say writers were ‘lured’? Like we’re children following a trail of candy. I created a $2B+ revenue stream for a major Corp with my imagination. I do not follow trails of candy. I am the candy.”