What Netflix Could Have Said This Week • Hacker News Board

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#41

Post by brown9-2 » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:21 PM UTC

jobu wrote: post #35

brown9-2 wrote: post #6

It's not just the tone of the email or the new name that bugs people - it's the complete separation of their sites, pretending that the DVD-by-mail site can't communicate with the streaming-only site, etc. People are annoyed that their ratings/suggestions won't carry over to the new site, and that the streaming-site won't let them add a movie to their DVD-by-mail queue when they search for a title and find it's not a…

Actually, this is might be a great area for a third party to get involved. Inveni ( http://www.inveni.com/ ) already works with Netflix, IMDB, etc as a recommendation engine. It would be a pretty short step for them to start managing your Netflix/Qwickster queues.

Back in June Netflix announced that they would be phasing out access to the DVD queue/movies in the API by the end of this year: http://techblog.netflix.com/2011/06/upcoming-changes-to-open...

Would be interesting to see if they have any plans to add that back, but otherwise, this type of solution sounds like it might not be possible.

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#42

Post by ShawnJG » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:22 PM UTC

Tloewald wrote: post #12

brown9-2 wrote: post #6

It's not just the tone of the email or the new name that bugs people - it's the complete separation of their sites, pretending that the DVD-by-mail site can't communicate with the streaming-only site, etc. People are annoyed that their ratings/suggestions won't carry over to the new site, and that the streaming-site won't let them add a movie to their DVD-by-mail queue when they search for a title and find it's not a…

Agreed. In the end this is all about Netflix and not about its customers. If any of this had anything positive to offer customers it could have been spun better, but it doesn't. I think netflix is actually in deep trouble. It's lost Starz, and could be losing other valuable rights, it's changing its business model in a way tha damages its own stickiness, and it raised its prices in a recession for reasons that make n…

Not to mention that a lot of there growth was due to the fact that they had a fiercely loyal cust base that proselytized endlessly for them.

I remember getting an email from them years ago that said in essence, "We've upgraded our systems and are now more efficient. because of this your plan will be reduced by xyz." Better service and cheaper, i thought they had me for life...until recently.

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#43

Post by Jun8 » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:23 PM UTC

"Common sense is not so common"! This is incomparable to the actual post, it highlights the positive points and addresses some (though not all) FUDs.

Similar to HP, Netflix made the huge mistake of announcing big changes in one big lump, creating a chaotic reaction. They probably should have waited a little to announce the split.

Keeping the Netflix name for both companies would have been a great idea (see the two Motorola companies), as commented here it was done this way most probably because they will sell the DVD business and use that money to invest in streaming.

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#44

Post by maratd » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:29 PM UTC

lukifer wrote: post #24

It's downright embarrassing how badly Netflix has botched this transition. Not only was Netflix sitting on 25 million happy subscribers, but subscribers who were notoriously brand-loyal, and whose word-of-mouth promotion effectively acted as an unpaid sales and marketing force. Now they seem to be doing everything they can to alienate their most dedicated users, essentially saying "We don't want your business anymore…

It wasn't botched. Everything is by design. Qwikster or whatever they are calling, is a direct competitor to Netflix, in the same way that Blockbuster was a direct competitor to Netflix. It's the last generation tech. They want to kill it.

They want to kill it fast because streaming customers are more profitable. They want you to switch from physical media to streaming NOW.

Yes, yes, I know you can't get that esoteric or new release by streaming. There's a ton of stuff that never made it to DVD that is still on VHS or Beta. I don't see you crying over that.

Netflix knows this. They are accelerating the switch and they're doing that by killing their DVD division in the most horrid way possible. That game rental thing is a bone meant to mislead you and is absolutely pointless. That part of the rental industry is being killed off by Steam. They know that too.

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#45

Post by smackfu » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:31 PM UTC

foulmouthboy wrote: post #7

The whole point of the original email was to recognize that their pricing changes made them seem out of touch. What's so bad about a CEO apologizing to his customer base? Also, I'll always take product name critiques with a grain of salt. I remember when people were complaining about how awkward MacBook Pro sounded. Don't even get me started on "iPod". If the service is good, then people will use the name and avoid t…

"I apologize! It's all my fault! And here's some other bad stuff, that's also my fault! What, you aren't happy I apologized?"

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#46

Post by rhizome » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:32 PM UTC

joeguilmette wrote: post #31

ctdonath wrote: post #27

Unified queue. Regardless of media, business structure, delivery mechanism, company name, etc. methinks what all customers want is a single place to choose & queue content, filtered by whatever options they desire, delivered on whatever medium is available and they pay for via a spectrum of contracts (from unlimited-per-month to single order). Just make sure it's all on one queue. If multi-queue, then only because on…

Don't forget ratings. Many people have years and years of ratings that drive their algorithm. That is now gone. Good job guys.

I'm pretty sure they aren't going to throw that away, are you nuts? They had a big ol' contest a few years back to come up with a new recommendation algo.

Further to what I assume is your point, we have a few years of practice in linking accounts, so a particular user's historical data can easily be integrated with this new corporate architecture.

EDIT: I'm using the royal "we" to refer to technological techniques for linking accounts across disparate websites. I don't work for Netflix.

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#47

Post by dugmartin » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:34 PM UTC

The problem with using "Netflix Classic" is it wouldn't allow them to sell it in 12 months as a distinct brand so they can get the dropping subscriber numbers off their books.

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#48

Post by BlazingFrog » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:36 PM UTC

maratd wrote: post #44

lukifer wrote: post #24

It's downright embarrassing how badly Netflix has botched this transition. Not only was Netflix sitting on 25 million happy subscribers, but subscribers who were notoriously brand-loyal, and whose word-of-mouth promotion effectively acted as an unpaid sales and marketing force. Now they seem to be doing everything they can to alienate their most dedicated users, essentially saying "We don't want your business anymore…

It wasn't botched. Everything is by design. Qwikster or whatever they are calling, is a direct competitor to Netflix, in the same way that Blockbuster was a direct competitor to Netflix. It's the last generation tech. They want to kill it. They want to kill it fast because streaming customers are more profitable. They want you to switch from physical media to streaming NOW. Yes, yes, I know you can't get that esoteri…

I'm curious, do you have numbers backing the higher profitability of their streaming business over DVD-by-mail?

I do agree that, if they wanted to get rid of their original line of business without looking like that's what they were doing, this would be the best way.

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#49

Post by kcurtin » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:39 PM UTC

This letter isn't in line with Netflix's strategy. They want the Netflix brand to be completely unassociated with by-mail DVDs. Sure Qwikster is a stupid name, but in a years time we will think of it as it's own entity/brand. Netflix classic would not accomplish this.

Re: What Netflix Could Have Said This Week

#50

Post by BlazingFrog » Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 7:43 PM UTC

tibbon wrote: post #20

I'm guessing someone in PR wrote a letter just like it. Then the CEO decided that it didn't really have the emotion and humility that the one posted had. Sure, PR can spin anything to seem pretty, but sometimes its really just better to admit failings (pricing changes) and show that you're not perfect.

If Hastings admitted to a mistake, it's for failing to explain what they were doing more clearly. His words: " It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do."

Am I the only one hearing a hint of condescension here?