Reed Hastings, Netflix's co-founder, chairman and CEO, acknowledged that Amazon is a very large and formidable rival -- even as he praised the e-commerce giant as helping to grow the streaming-video sector.
"We're continuing to watch them and be impressed with them," Hastings said in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Alley" Wednesday. "They're helping to grow the industry... [but] they're awfully scary."
At the same time, Hastings drew a distinction between the overall strategy of the two companies, noting that Netflix is focused entirely on subscription VOD whereas Amazon is trying to sell hundreds of different products. "We're trying to be Starbucks, they're trying to be Walmart," he said.
In the interview, Hastings also said Netflix is continuously investing in artificial intelligence -- in order to improve recommendations. "We want you to turn on Netflix with a row of four shows, you just want to watch them all," he said.
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