The YouTube-Fire TV Spat Is Over, but the Platform Wars Will Rage On

Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Fire TV is among the most popular streaming platforms in the country, second only to Roku's (NASDAQ: ROKU) eponymous platform. But for more than a year, Fire TV users didn't have access to a major streaming app: Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) YouTube.

That's no longer an issue. YouTube is now available on Fire TV devices and Amazon's Prime Video has at long last arrived on Alphabet's Android TV and Chromecast. That's nice for users, but it only hints at the bigger story. For more than a year, Amazon and Alphabet's Google punished each other's platforms instead of serving customers on those opposing platforms. The fact that this spat happened at all is indicative of just how important these streaming platforms are.

Image source: Getty Images.

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