• 3 min read
Entertainment Apps Are Converging Around AI
Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, and TikTok are expanding across formats as AI helps them keep users inside one app longer.
Image: Anna Barclay / Contributor (opens in a new window)
The biggest entertainment platforms are starting to resemble each other by design. After years of competing over single formats like music, video, podcasts, and audiobooks, they are now chasing a larger goal: becoming the one app users open whenever they want something to watch, hear, play, or even shop for.
TechCrunch argues that three forces are driving the shift. The market for entertainment apps has matured, slowing growth and pushing companies to focus on time spent and revenue per user instead of new sign-ups. Creators increasingly work across multiple formats, making it useful to keep all of their content in one place. And AI makes it easier for a single company to run multiple content formats effectively.
Netflix is one of the clearest examples. In recent years it has added gaming, live sports and other events, and more recently short video clips and podcasts. The strategy is to capture more of users' downtime, including the shorter stretches that might otherwise go to social feeds, casual games, TikTok, or Reels.
Spotify has also moved well beyond music. After podcasts, it added video podcasts, social tools including Q&As and commenting, stories, messaging, fitness classes, audiobooks, narrated magazines, and even physical book sales.
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YouTube has expanded from long-form creator video into short-form content, while also building out podcasts, gaming, music, movies and TV, sports, news, and shopping. Users can now watch free ad-supported movies and TV, stream live content, or rent and buy titles. TechCrunch suggests that folding YouTube TV and YouTube Music into the main YouTube app, then selling access in tiers, now looks increasingly likely.
TikTok, best known for short video, now supports long-form content, travel planning, shopping, local discovery, and live event ticketing. It also has a separate app for microdramas and another called TikTok Pro Events for sporting events including the FIFA World Cup, plus music festivals and more.
How AI is shaping the next entertainment platform
As format becomes less of a differentiator, recommendation quality becomes more important. That is where AI fits in: helping platforms personalize across formats and, in some cases, giving users more control over those recommendations.
Spotify is testing a feature that lets users edit their Taste Profile, the company’s AI-built model of their preferences. It is also building tools that let people chat with AI to find what they want or generate playlists that extend beyond music.
Netflix has made a similar argument to investors. On the company’s first-quarter call, co-CEO Greg Peters said new model architectures are improving personalization and allowing the company to iterate faster. TechCrunch also notes that Netflix recently bought Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking company for $587 million.
YouTube AI creation feature, Dream Screen.
YouTube is using generative AI for creator tools, search improvements, conversational features, playlist building, and auto-dubbing. Earlier this year, the company said more than a million channels used its AI creation tools and 20 million consumers used its Gemini AI-powered content discovery tool in the month of December. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has described AI as central to the YouTube experience for both creators and viewers.
TikTok AI creation feature, TikTok AI Alive. Image Credits: TikTok
TikTok has assembled a similar stack, including an in-app AI chatbot, AI video-generation tools, AI-driven search and recommendations, and AI-powered accessibility features.
All four platforms are also applying AI to advertising, helping marketers write ads, target audiences, price placements, and measure performance. For users, the convergence means fewer reasons to switch apps. For the platforms, it means more data, more lock-in, and a stronger position if prices rise or quality slips. The next fight is no longer over which format wins, but which app becomes the default home for entertainment in any form.
Computing Editor
Tomas lives in the terminal. He covers chips, laptops, and operating systems with a focus on performance and efficiency. He reads kernel changelogs the way other people read fiction, and he's always on the hunt for the perfect mechanical keyboard switch. If it processes data, Tomas has an opinion on it.
via TechCrunch
