Disney+ Announces Bizarre Plan To Put Tiktok Videos On Service

Have you noticed lately that when you open up Netflix, you get a bunch of appeals to do things you don’t go to Netflix for? There’s a podcast section now, but why would anyone use Netflix to listen to a podcast? There are promos for cheap-looking video games all over the place, which the subscriber is expected to play using their phone as the controller. Odds are most subscribers own a dedicated video game device that is much better at this sort of thing. Why can’t Netflix just stay in its lane instead of trying and failing to be something it’s not?

The problem is this: when you’re a relatively new, relatively hot venture, and you’ve gone as far as you can go, growth slows into a predictable pace and the thing you sell stops being exciting. That’s when a stockholder’s wandering eye might catch something else newer and more exciting. This causes operations like this to jump up and nervously shout “UH NO, WE AREN’T DONE GROWING! THERE ARE THINGS WE HAVEN’T TRIED YET! LIKE, UH, MINI GOLF ON NETFLIX!”

That same strategy is now seemingly being employed by Disney’s streaming service, Disney+. The streamer announced today there will be a Tiktok tag on the main page soon that will present a library of curated videos. Whatever for, you say. Can’t I access Tiktok for free, you say. Why would I go to Disney+ to watch it, you say….

Those are questions that really aren’t being thought about. The library will be a curated selection of short vertical videos related to Disney IPs and products, and probably not negative ones. We imagine it will just be people saying things like “I LOVE GROGU” or something. So much more limited than actual Tiktok, which I must re-emphasize is free, and there won’t be much entertainment value in what Disney+ has picked.

“The best storytellers are fans first,” said Asad Ayaz, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer at The Walt Disney Company. “That has always been true at Disney, and today, fans are celebrating our stories in entirely new ways. This collaboration creates a new bridge between the stories we tell and the creativity they inspire, giving creators a bigger stage to share what they’ve made, and audiences more to discover on Disney+ every day.”

But will it keep the stockholders focused and the price on Wall Street stable? That’s the real point here, but we’re skeptical of success on that end as well.