How PayPal, Netflix, X, Facebook and YouTube lost their way – Chris Skinner’s blog

There was a time when the biggest technology companies knew exactly what they were. Twitter was where the world talked. Facebook was where friends connected. YouTube was where anyone could broadcast themselves. Netflix was where you watched great television without adverts, schedules or interruptions. PayPal was the easiest way to pay online. Each company had a clear identity. A simple purpose. They solved one problem exceptionally well. Today, most of them are trying to become something else and, in doing so, have lost their way. Earlier this week I wrote about PayPal’s remarkable strategic journey. Here was a company that revolutionised online payments by making sending money over the internet effortless. Then it tried to become the operating system for commerce. Wallets. Shopping. Lending. Cryptocurrency. Rewards. Buy Now Pay Later. Merchant services. Consumer finance. Advertising. The strategy wasn’t wrong, but somewhere along the way the original clarity disappeared. The platform became a portfolio. PayPal isn’t alone. I also recently wrote about the decline of Twitter after Elon Musk’s transformation of the platform into X. Netflix appears to be having its own identity crisis. I used to love Netflix when it produced original series like House of Cards and The Queen’s
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