Continuing here the discussion…
Talking about the Mubi “scheme”, we know very few things about employees and incentives.
Long time ago, there were a lot of collaborators/moderators (mainly not paid, of course) despite this, users appreciated their work in moderating and keeping Mubi a nice place to stay.
The employees were mainly programmers, technicians… Once I read a Mubi job recruiting announcement but it was the old age.
There was a working messaging system, now it’s hidden and just the old users know how it works (like masons).
Forum is completely abandoned to itself, the majority of the users migrated to other sites.
Two years ago, Efe was so proud to announce a big redesign project, he was concerned to make movies available by tablet, smart TV (Sony), via Roku… and so on… that was the “big idea” according his business mind.
Maybe I have not been paying attention, but I couldn’t see the redesign applied, I just noticed that some features disappeared in my profile.
On Mubi you can see the Martin Scorsese’s profile, you can read about the royal limousine … all marketing tricks, all bullshits.
Of course, I think that innovation and creativity are important in the business world, but Efe didn’t realized that a movie fan (cinephile) is a “special” customer/user; not necessarily it’s important to watch a movie by tablet or smartphone. I’ve never watched a movie using a tablet.
Moreover Netflix and other platforms are now availiable and they seem to be more competitive, maybe they are less focused on cult-movies, but neither Mubi is so satisfying.
So we are still wondering: where is the profit?
Cinematic world can't be managed as a “product” and at the same time it’s quite more complicated than a customer service. Cinephiles love making lists (except “Stop the list” thread :) ), discussing and having “cat fights” with other users because of reviews, meeting other enthusiasts, exchanging stuff… and watching movies on demand.
I mean… I don’t want to condemn the “entrepreneurial spirit” who drive him, I just say that he surgery cut the best features in Mubi, promising changes never realized.
He had gold in the hands but he couldn’t manage it, now it’s just a big aborted project.
Just my opinion..