Powered by Netflix: speed test services and video-on-demand’s global development projects

Abstract

This article examines three online tools that enable users of video-on-demand (VOD) platforms to check their Internet speeds: the ISP Speed Index and Fast.com, both developed by Netflix, and Google/YouTube’s Video Quality Report. In the context of VOD corporations’ aims of global market expansion, these sites are part of Netflix and YouTube’s broader initiatives to promote high-speed broadband and mobile Internet to users throughout the world. However, I argue that these speed test sites are ultimately less concerned with encouraging high-speed Internet as a broadly accessible public good and more invested in ensuring that consumers have quick and ready access to the one particular video platform owned by that stakeholder. Merging literature on media globalization, development communication, and digital infrastructures, this article shows that like many corporate global development projects, these speed test sites mask commercialized self-interest behind a seemingly humanitarian and philanthropic push for increased user participation in a modernized mediascape. Mundane as they may seem, Netflix’s and YouTube’s speed test services provide opportunities to critique how Silicon Valley and global entertainment industries position themselves jointly as benefactors of development.