Maybe they should have considered who already has the Twitter handle before they settled on the name:
Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
71–80 of 112 posts
Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
#72I can't see how this is a good decision. Their streaming service is cheap but lacks titles. I use DVDs to get the shows and movies I can't get from the streaming service. Obviously streaming is the future but the DVD part generates profits. The streaming only service - if it truly stands alone - is soon going to be competing with Amazon, Google, and Apple but without as much cash as these companies. With their stock'…
Most successful business don't make huge decisions like this if there wasn't a reason. And instead of speculation, we know why this split is happening. Think back with "The Social Network" was pulled from Netflix. The reason was that Netflix and Stars in their contract was limited to a certain number of viewers. In Stars' eyes, Netflix's total userbase was the number of viewers even though Stars was only concerned with streaming. So, to appease both the DVD licensing where they pay the studios per rental (and streaming shouldn't count against that) and to appease streaming licensing where they also pay by the size of the viewership (such as the case of Stars), they had no choice but to not only split the subscription model, but the company itself.
Thinking that Netflix would kill a good thing is pretty dumb and I sort of expected more from the HN audience in this case. Netflix is doing what they have to do, not what they want to do.
Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
He's even replying to comments in the Facebook comments threads below. That impresses me a lot.
From what I saw, he's only replying to comments praising the decision, and not engaging at all with any of the vast majority who criticize or question it. This does not impress me quite so much.
The first two comments he replied to (when I saw) were very critical.
Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
#74To anyone who reads this from the Netflix team:
I love Netflix. And so my following criticism is intended to be constructive. The email and blog post that Reed sent out today starts off well...
"I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation........I’ll try to explain how this happened."
However, after writing the above, Reed doesn't really give an explanation, and based on my colleagues' and other commenters' reactions so far, it seems to have come off as a smug non-apology. Rather than a wordy but empty-ish post, what you should have written about the overall price increases was a simple explanation at how your sourcing costs have increased. You might think that since that information is public, and geeks like us already know about it, but the majority of your customers might not be as news-savvy. And on the DVD side, explain to your customers some of the challenges that you are facing there, how they have become different from the streaming side, and why you needed to separate the businesses. (I personally don't really understand this one - the only reason I can think of for the clean separation is if you wanted the option to sell off one of the businesses later).
I believe people would have been more sympathetic had you given a simple, honest explanation of your challenges, especially after starting your post like that.
Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
#75Netflix should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. There are a lot of successful companies that are much more diversified than Netflix is right now. This honestly strikes me as a panic driven move in response to the customer rage and their precipitous drop off in stock prices. I'm trying hard but can't see the upside to this move. And I think this will cause a big hemmorhaging in profit for the short/mediu…
> I can guarantee you a sizeable chunk of people who were just happy with the dual plan will end up picking one or the other. But the upside for netflix is those people that end up picking both. The time to analyze this is 6 months from now when the figures are in. My personal best guess about what they're about to do is sell off the DVD division.
I think it's important to realize the difference between these businesses. Qwikster won't have to negotiate with the content providers because they can purchase the DVDs and games and rent them without the content companies having a say. Netflix has to negotiate for all their content, and we all know how reasonable the content companies are.
I don't think we'll see a spin-off for at least a year, and probably bit longer.
Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
#76I can't see how this is a good decision. Their streaming service is cheap but lacks titles. I use DVDs to get the shows and movies I can't get from the streaming service. Obviously streaming is the future but the DVD part generates profits. The streaming only service - if it truly stands alone - is soon going to be competing with Amazon, Google, and Apple but without as much cash as these companies. With their stock'…
Most successful business don't make huge decisions like this if there wasn't a reason. And instead of speculation, we know why this split is happening. Think back with "The Social Network" was pulled from Netflix. The reason was that Netflix and Stars in their contract was limited to a certain number of viewers. In Stars' eyes, Netflix's total userbase was the number of viewers even though Stars was only concerned wi…
Your last paragraph seems to suggest that companies don't make dumb decisions by "killing a good thing". Maybe you think only Netflix doesn't make dumb decisions of this sort but there is a long history of companies making dumb decisions by killing 'a good thing'.
As stated I don't see how Netflix will survive long term.
Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
#77Netflix should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. There are a lot of successful companies that are much more diversified than Netflix is right now. This honestly strikes me as a panic driven move in response to the customer rage and their precipitous drop off in stock prices. I'm trying hard but can't see the upside to this move. And I think this will cause a big hemmorhaging in profit for the short/mediu…
Steam doesn't rent games, which is what I believe qwikster intends to do. It's gamefly they would be competing with. If I were gamefly, I'd be very worried right now.
Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
#78Netflix should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. There are a lot of successful companies that are much more diversified than Netflix is right now. This honestly strikes me as a panic driven move in response to the customer rage and their precipitous drop off in stock prices. I'm trying hard but can't see the upside to this move. And I think this will cause a big hemmorhaging in profit for the short/mediu…
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Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
#79To anyone who reads this from the Netflix team: I love Netflix. And so my following criticism is intended to be constructive. The email and blog post that Reed sent out today starts off well... "I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation........I’ll try to explain how this happened." However, after writing the above, Reed doesn't really give an explanation, and based on my colleagues' and other commenters' reactions…
I noted this elsewhere, but I believe it has to do with Netlfix relationships and negotiations with the content creators, and how it differs from the Qwikster model of buying discs. Qwikster requires zero relationships and negotiations with the content creators.
I can't really understand why people get so upset about these changes because I can't find the catalog size/ low cost anywhere else. If anyone knows of a better service/value, I would be interested.
Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
I honestly don't care how Apple runs it's business. I don't work for apple, I do, on the other hand, work for netflix, and not having to worry about DVDs will be a nice relief.
^^ This is why Netflix is fubar'd. Totally internally looking -- not giving a shit what it means for their customers. Yeah, we all love paying two bills each month, having to search for content two places, having our ratings queues forked and kept out of sync. Thanks, we're all so glad to hear that it's easier for you. We'll make it even easier: find new customers. We're gone.
You pay $200/ month? Maybe you meant $20?
I would be interested in what you find as a good replacement because I might consider a switch if it were good enough. I just killed my cable and that was costing me ~$70/ month.