Netflix kills Qwikster
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Netflix kills Qwikster
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Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#2OK.
Netflix really doesn't know what it's doing.
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#3From the nytimes article [1] it sounds like the investors let him have it "Three days after the announcement, Mr. Hastings wrote in a Facebook status update, “In Wyoming with 10 investors at a ranch/retreat. I think I might need a food taster. I can hardly blame them.”
[1] http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/netflix-aba...
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#4OK. Netflix really doesn't know what it's doing.
As a Netflix customer I applaud their 180 turnaround on their Qwikster plans. It doesn't matter to me if their flip-flop makes them seem a little scatterbrained, because the decision to keep both services bundled together makes the most sense.
Perhaps they realized that if they spin off their DVD business that there would be blood in the water and the likes of Amazon Prime and Blockbuster would feast at their expense. While I do think that online streaming is preferable to DVDs-by-mail, the fact is that there isn't enough online content available for streaming and the DVDs nicely fill in the gaps and I honestly don't think DVDs-by-mail will die off as quickly as they first thought.
It makes sense to keep DVDs-by-mail until their online streaming selection is much more broad, diverse, and containing a lot more quality content.
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#5While this rights the ship, Netflix made the colossal mistake of rocking the recurring-billing boat.
Smart businesses know that when you've got a customer setup for recurring monthly billing, there's a certain percentage of these customers who will continue to pay even though they're not actively using the service. Part of it is laziness of figuring out how to cancel. Another part is the thought that they may someday use the service more than they are. This has been the model for gyms forever.
What Netflix did was force people to re-evaluate whether they truly were getting what they paid for, and in the process they added complexity to their branding by spinning off part of the service into a hard-to-spell company that had nothing buy a landing page.
While this may be good for today's stock price, I suspect many of Netflix's customers that re-evaluated their needs may not come back for quite a while ... if ever. There's more options available for media than there likely were when they first signed up for Netflix ... and if those competitors are smart, they'll target those customers to ensure they're aware of the alternatives.
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#6That was fast.
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#7As an outside observer, Netflix appears to be in a state of panic over the content providers playing hardball with it. Much like Google, Netflix has such a huge lead nobody wants to give it a fair break anymore. In many cases, companies won't even give it an unfair break.
Without the support of content providers, Netflix went from disrupting the cable TV industry to playing catch up with HBO. Its only hope now is to produce some killer original content, license what it can, and sell its premium "channel" as a supplement rather than a replacement. All of the upside from its slowing DVD business will have to go into content production, which will eventually put it on even footing with HBO, Showtime, NBC, CBS, Fox, et al.
If I had to guess, the original plan was to sell off Qwikster. Get the cash up front for the content push. But now that's not going to work, I guess they're just going to milk it until it's done instead.
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#8At least they have the nuts to change it back
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#9For now, they're far enough ahead of any real competition that the flip-flopping won't be too harmful in the short term. They have a great product and they know it.
And, this isn't the first time Netflix pissed off customers. A few years back they tried to eliminate the ability to create multiple queues in one account-- they used some ridiculous excuse about technical issues.
However, once Amazon and other comers start establishing themselves in the market, Netflix would do best to get its act together or perish.
Re: Netflix kills Qwikster
#10From the nytimes article [1] it sounds like the investors let him have it "Three days after the announcement, Mr. Hastings wrote in a Facebook status update, “In Wyoming with 10 investors at a ranch/retreat. I think I might need a food taster. I can hardly blame them.” [1] http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/netflix-aba...
For anyone else who didn't get this right away: by "a food taster", he means that he thought someone might have poisoned his food. (It only took me a second, but it's not that common a usage today.)