For my observe I wanted to analyze hulu’s welcome page. I chose this to analyze, firstly because I have noticed that my hulu usage has increased dramatically in the last 6 months. Last year at this time, I hardly used hulu at all. I believe my usage has increased for 2 reasons; firstly, because in the last year, netflix has increased the amount of shows that are being take down, which was not as common for tv shows last year as it was for netflix’s extensive list of movies. Secondly, aside from hulu having access to many of the shows that netflix took down (i.e family guy, american dad, bob’s burgers, etc) hulu has added many shows that air on live tv to their lineup, available right after the show airs. This year, they released a partnership with spotify, which also probably helped their revenue and contributed to the increase in tv show options.
All these things considered, when you go to hulu’s homepage on a computer or smartphone, it gives you many options on how to sign up or obtain an account with hulu; the top of the main page has two areas that allow you to access a free trial, and when scrolling down, it shows you payment plan options, and ultimately ends with another designated area for which users can start their free trial (I wonder what they want me to take away from their homepage..maybe that there is a… free trial option?) (just kidding, that was sarcasm).
They are definitely playing to a certain audience here, but what’s interesting to me is that you actually have to search for where to log in. There is a menu-looking button in the top right corner that some people would interpret as a menu, but others may just think it is a design choice. You must click it, and when the menu drops down, there are two options: log in, and, say it with me now, start your free trial! I found this interesting because clearly it is doing many things to try to persuade people into signing up for hulu, but it doesn’t do much to encourage existing users to keep coming back, at least on the main/home page. Of course companies want to advertise to potential new customers, but maybe they should play to the likes of existing users too, ya know?
