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Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

blog.netflix.com

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Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#81

Post by iand »

foobarbazoo wrote: post #46
flyosity wrote: post #8

This is not something you see CEOs write every day. Hell, this isn't something you see CEOs write ever in their careers. It took a lot of guts to write it, and regardless of the huge controversy surrounding their pricing strategies, I hope that this split succeeds. Also, video games!

Qwikster is a joke and will be dead or acquired in 5 years. And Netflix streaming is not ready to carry Netflix forward. We won't be subscribing to Qwikster, and we're already looking for alternatives on the streaming side -- most likely, Amazon, who would never do something this idiotic.

Your statement would be stronger with some backup argument and justification. Why is it a joke and why will it be dead in 5 years? Why isn't acquisition a winning outcome?

Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#82

Post by iand »

nosequel wrote: post #72
yequalsx wrote: post #3

I 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…

Good analysis

Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#83

Post by silverbax88 »

sriramk wrote: post #65
DevX101 wrote: post #37

Netflix 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…

If you think something of this scale was put together in a month, you don't understand how large companies work. This has to be in the works for atleast 4-5 months. The press likes to construct these action->reaction narratives (Foo launches Bar in response to company X doing Y yesterday) but in reality, these things take time and are rarely direct responses to events.

Yes, it's obviously been in the works for some time now. But the other problem with big companies is that once they start heading in a direction, it's almost impossible to stop, even if it's clearly the wrong direction.

Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#84

Post by nosequel »

yequalsx wrote: post #76
nosequel wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Companies in the past have definitely made dumb decisions you are right about that, but typically they don't just kill off their main cash cow for no apparent reason. That's all I'm saying. All of the "why would he do this?!?" posts are dumb for thinking that someone like the CEO of Netflix doesn't know that this would be a pretty stupid split of the business if he didn't have to do it to survive.

Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#85

Post by nosequel »

kariatx wrote: post #71

Maybe they should have considered who already has the Twitter handle before they settled on the name: http://twitter.com/#!/Qwikster

When I first checked this account he had 19 followers, now he's 600+. He's going to wake up this morning thinking he's still tripping.

Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#86

Post by jonknee »

0x12 wrote: post #53
DevX101 wrote: post #37

Netflix 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.

> But the upside for netflix is those people that end up picking both.

How's that an upside considering that's what they currently have? Instead of one charge on your credit card there will be two that add up to the same thing. At best (for Netflix). This will not raise revenues.

Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#87

Post by vaksel »

flyosity wrote: post #8

This is not something you see CEOs write every day. Hell, this isn't something you see CEOs write ever in their careers. It took a lot of guts to write it, and regardless of the huge controversy surrounding their pricing strategies, I hope that this split succeeds. Also, video games!

i really doubt he was the one to write it...he probably signed off on using it, but it was most likely written by the PR department

Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#88

Post by jonknee »

afarrell wrote: post #62
foobarbazoo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did trust the company. That's gone now. All that time we've spent rating stuff? Spun off to this POS Kwikster company, and no longer integrated. It's rare that companies this size make such stupid moves; this is one of those times.

But its not a new company. Its the same organization headed by the same person with the same employees as before. There is just some different branding.

The new branding includes a CEO and it's being billed separately. Not to mention being completely separated online (no shared ratings or searching). It's a different company.

Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#89

Post by troutwine »

nl wrote: post #73
Stratoscope wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Indeed. I rather wish it were possible to see all the comments on a single page, or to search by user. Most of the posters interest me not at all, but Mr. Hastings very much does.

Re: Reed Hastings responds to criticisms and announces Qwikster

#90

Post by wmf »

18pfsmt wrote: post #79
tsycho wrote: post #74

To 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 bet…

Qwikster requires zero relationships and negotiations with the content creators.

This isn't quite true BTW. Remember the 28-day window.

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