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Netflix Kills Qwikster

Posted by samzenpus on from the on-second-thought dept.

gclef writes "Netflix has apparently decided that spinning off their DVD business into a separate organization was a bad idea after all, and is killing off the 'Qwikster' concept. From the article: 'Less than a month ago, the Netflix said it would split the DVD rental business off on a new website, to be called Qwikster. Subscribers howled at the move, saying they saw Netflix as a destination for movies in general and didn’t want to manage two accounts. “It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs,” CEO Reed Hastings said in the blog post.'"

41 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. Too little, too late by g051051 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's obvious that NetFlix doesn't understand its customers anymore (if it ever did.) What I used to take as excellent customer focused strategy now seems to have been completely accidental. Every customer facing change they've made over the past few years has made the NetFlix experience progressively worse. At this point, I've had enough of their confused thrashing, and will still be cancelling my subscription. I checked my records, I joined NetFlix in 2004, and used to have a 3 DVD plan, but inf recent years have dropped to 1 DVD, then no DVDs, and now, no NetFlix.

    1. Re:Too little, too late by eepok · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't think it's too little nor too late. This is two major decisions that they've turned around and admitted that they didn't appropriately measure their audience correctly-- BEFORE implementation. How many companies do you know that do that?

      Their actions were affected by their audience... do we have expectations above and beyond that?

    2. Re:Too little, too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Their actions were affected by their tumbling stock price and customer mass exodus.

    3. Re:Too little, too late by taxman_10m · · Score: 2

      I was a few weeks away from cancelling. The Qwikster thing spurred me to explore other options and question how and in what way I spend my entertainment dollars. Let's face it, once you begin to give a good hard look at entertainment spending it is easy to come to the conclusion that you don't need much of it. My Netflix instant and dvd queue is about 90% 3-star movies, things that I'd add but put off to watch other better things. But now I've watch all those other things. Yes, Netflix did add some new content recently, but they also took away some content as I found out when I went to watch The Sting (5-stars) on Instant. Now that the summer is over, network TV is back. That's free OTA, and you can catch eps for free on Hulu.

      I suppose I'll refrain from cancelling now, but I don't have much confidence in Netflix's future. They seem schizophrenic at the moment.

    4. Re:Too little, too late by SlippyToad · · Score: 2

      I'm already there. I could not justify $130 a month for 500 channels of mindless puree. And I'm still not sure how we got to paying for commercials. One thing maybe these fuckwits could take note of is that customers pay for TV to get away from the goddamn commerical interruptons. I am sticking with Netflix because I tried Hulu as an alternative, and the every-10-minutes commercial interruption (which was in no way "limited" at all) was enough of a nuisance that I decided I refuse to pay $8/mo for some fucking bullshit to be bleated in my ear while I'm trying to relax.

      --
      One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
    5. Re:Too little, too late by tripleevenfall · · Score: 2

      Personally, I'm amazed the CEO still has a job after this dumbassery has reduced the stock price by half in only a couple of months.

      I will repeat my assessment of Netflix. It's a company that had a good idea once, and hasn't had a good one since.

    6. Re:Too little, too late by knight24k · · Score: 2

      It's obvious that NetFlix doesn't understand its customers anymore (if it ever did.) What I used to take as excellent customer focused strategy now seems to have been completely accidental. Every customer facing change they've made over the past few years has made the NetFlix experience progressively worse. At this point, I've had enough of their confused thrashing, and will still be cancelling my subscription. I checked my records, I joined NetFlix in 2004, and used to have a 3 DVD plan, but inf recent years have dropped to 1 DVD, then no DVDs, and now, no NetFlix.

      Same here, the last announcement caused me to cancel that day and made me take another look at Blockbuster. After the price jump I had to drop down to 2 DVDs. With BB I'm back to 3 and get Blu-ray and games for no extra charge. Granted, Netflix has the most amazing search and recommendation system around, but I can't justify staying with them for that and frankly I don't trust them anymore. If that insane CEO leaves I *may* try them again, but as long as that idiot is leading things I am staying away.

  2. "Quikster" split a dumb move to begin with by elrous0 · · Score: 2

    I've been using Netflix since they started, and much as I love them, even I was left scratching my head over that one. It was such a bonehead move that the only logic I can see behind it is if they were hoping to quietly sell "Quikster" off later without generating any negative press for Netflix (and their stock). Otherwise it just feels like an insult to their customers (an we had already faced a price hike this year already).

    I just can't see how they *wouldn't* expect a negative reaction from customers when you tell them "Now you'll have to visit two different sites, with different queues, different passwords, etc." It was taking something simple and making it a much bigger pain in the ass, for no apparent reason.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:"Quikster" split a dumb move to begin with by oGMo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I just can't see how they *wouldn't* expect a negative reaction from customers when you tell them "Now you'll have to visit two different sites, with different queues, different passwords, etc." It was taking something simple and making it a much bigger pain in the ass, for no apparent reason.

      Of course, this creates even bigger outcry than price increases, and people stop talking about price issues and start talking about how they're going to cancel entirely when this happens. Then it doesn't, and they don't, but no one's really talking about price increases anymore. Cheap and effective counter to bad PR is worse PR that goes away!

      Unfortunately "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" has a corollary, "never attribute to brilliant cunning that which is adequately explained by stupidity," so I can't quite bring myself to believe this.

      --

      Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage

    2. Re:"Quikster" split a dumb move to begin with by glassware · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Netflix subscribed to a management theory called "eating your own lunch." The idea is that any business, if you wait around long enough, will get mummified as you keep trying to protect the revenue generated by your ancient business model. The theory says that, as the big company keeps struggling to keep its moribund business alive, a younger, hungrier competitor with a slightly different business model will steal your lunch. So, the theory goes, you should eat your own lunch and embark on your own variant business models. That way, when the business world shifts, you'll still be in business.

      The theory points to such past projects as the CD industry, Blockbuster, and others. The idea is that such industries failed because they were too wedded to their ideas to change.

      The trouble is, Netflix went overboard. They had two different business models running perfectly smoothly side by side. There was no mummification, nothing preventing them from being innovative or seizing on the new streaming business. In fact, their DVD-by-mail business was helping them wield great power in the movie industry, and helping them to get deals for streaming content.

      So if they were paying attention clearly, the only reason to kill off the DVD-by-mail business is if it was scaring off the customers, starving the company of funds, or somehow preventing innovation. None of those were true. I'm glad to see they came to their senses.

    3. Re:"Quikster" split a dumb move to begin with by nine-times · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I just can't see how they *wouldn't* expect a negative reaction from customers when you tell them "Now you'll have to visit two different sites, with different queues, different passwords, etc." It was taking something simple and making it a much bigger pain in the ass, for no apparent reason.

      I agree with whoever said it when it was first announced: It seems like they just didn't think it through. IIRC, there was even a quote by Netflix's president when they asked him about needing to manage separate queues, and he was like, "Oooh, right. Good point. I'll have to get back to you on that one."

      My guess is that they were so wrapped up in large-scale business strategies, wanting to separate out DVD and streaming for accounting, legal, and/or marketing reasons, and somehow no one stopped to ask, "What will this mean, on a practical level, for our customers?"

      Not exactly confidence-inspiring.

    4. Re:"Quikster" split a dumb move to begin with by Lucidus · · Score: 2

      What's interesting to me is that, up until these two PR blunders, Netflix was highly respected - certainly here on Slashdot - both for its efficient operation and for an unusually enlightened attitude towards customer service and satisfaction. How did the same people go so wrong so fast?

  3. And the Soner kid with the twitter... by Moheeheeko · · Score: 2

    ..is kicking himself for not taking the $1k he was offered for it.

  4. Re:Waah waah by DocSavage64109 · · Score: 2

    As a Netflix DVD subscriber, I'm rather happy that they've decided to change their plans and maintain their current services. Has any of this drama impacted your service? Are you now buying DVDs or Blurays at $15-$30 each? Also, I'm glad to not be subsidizing all of those instant view customers any more.

  5. And the price...? by timeOday · · Score: 2

    Hey Netflix, while you're eating crow, how about rewinding another couple months and rescinding the price hike as well?

    1. Re:And the price...? by Cruorin · · Score: 2

      The price hike is making them an enormous amount of money. They lost 4% of their customers, but are charging almost double. I would assume that enough customers kept their old plans to make up that loss many times.

  6. Link to actual Netflix blog post by rminsk · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://blog.netflix.com/2011/10/dvds-will-be-staying-at-netflixcom.html

  7. Integration with Facebook? by knitting+fool · · Score: 4, Interesting
    A guest on an NPR show the other day speculated that a partnership with Facebook was part of the motivation for the split. The gentleman described Facebook's new "tell everyone exactly what you are doing right now including naming the movies you are currently watching" plan, and then speculated that current privacy laws wouldn't allow Netflix to share information about DVD rentals. The privacy laws for streaming, he thought, might be a bit hazier, and by separating the two Netflix might be free to share that information with Facebook.

    Sorry I can't find a link to the article at the moment. It was the first not-insanely-unreasonable argument I had heard for the division. (although perhaps still a bit unreasonable.)

    --
    -- Give us your technology and we'll give you all the cow lips you want.
    1. Re:Integration with Facebook? by slyrat · · Score: 2

      Well I found this article on it: tech crunch netflix-facebook app
      Though honestly I really hope this is just an app you can use in facebook rather than having the facebook login go to netflix.

  8. Also, by Zouden · · Score: 4, Funny

    "We realised that Qwikster sounds like the sort of company that made spyware in the late 90s".

    --
    "A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
  9. Alternative to Redbox for older films? by tepples · · Score: 2

    As long as it can maintain machines and relevant titles, Redbox will end up eating their lunch anyhow.

    Perhaps you define "relevant titles" differently than I, but in my experience, Redbox keeps a movie in stock for about a year before it's no longer in any machine nearby. What do you do if you want to watch a movie that isn't a new release anymore, or do you just abstain from older movies?

  10. Tone deaf again by LMacG · · Score: 2

    "It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult"

    So he thinks there are people (who want both DVDs and streaming) for whom that wouldn't be the case?

    This guy seriously needs somebody to keep him from attempting to communicate with the public.

    --
    Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
  11. Re:The rate hike remains, of course by The+Pirou · · Score: 2

    The rating hike is negligible though. The cost to have streaming + 3 Dvd's out at a time is still less than what Comcast and other service providers are charging for basic cable. With Hulu being free to watch new episode content, I'm still happily along for the ride that Netflix is offering.
    It was the idea of having to login to 2 different websites to find what I want to watch that really chaffed.

  12. Customers by mu51c10rd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To be fair, they only lost 1 million out of an original 25 million. I would hardly call that a mass exodus. Unfortunately, investors panicked and their share price did plummet. Shame that we punish Netflix for a 6 dollar increase, and do nothing about the movie studios requiring significantly larger contracts that Netflix needs to find the cash for.

    1. Re:Customers by jandrese · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's still a substantial customer base reduction in such a short period of time, and it doesn't even count the people who dropped one part of their service and/or downgraded their plans. Those people could be one step away from cancelling entirely.

      Qwikster was such a stupid name anyway.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    2. Re:Customers by TClevenger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Shame that we punish Netflix for a 6 dollar increase, and do nothing about the movie studios requiring significantly larger contracts that Netflix needs to find the cash for

      Most of us didn't punish Netflix for a 6 dollar increase. In fact, we know that the movie studios want Netflix dead so they can go back to their 3-day "rental" for $3 plan (ahem, iTunes.)

      It's the fact that Netflix tried to push this price increase as a great thing for consumers that pissed us off. Complain about how the movie studios are putting the screws to us (and maybe mention some places we can write to to complain), and you'd have us firmly on your side. Bullshit us by posting "our lowest prices ever" and "great value" on your blog, and we'll react.

  13. Now...show intelligent corporate governance, and by argStyopa · · Score: 2

    ....fire the guy whose catastrophically stupid idea that was.

    And probably his boss, for approving it.

    Seriously, it was an abortion from the first moment. Conceiving it, communicating it, championing it, apologizing for it, then backing away from it - all a disaster.

    OK, credit them one TEENSY bit for finally acknowledging that annoying their ENTIRE customer base, making using their service MORE difficult to use, and then resisting to almost the last man until finally capitulating was stupid. Um, congrats?

    --
    -Styopa
  14. Just got the official email about this by J-1000 · · Score: 2
    From the email:

    While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

    Why would he say this?? It's off-topic to begin with (the email was about Qwikster), and he's setting himself up to be a hypocrite. What happens when it really is time for the inevitable price change? Has he never heard of inflation? Does he expect the industry to remain changeless? He must have one heck of a crystal ball.

    Someone else needs to write Netflix's emails.

  15. Re:Waah waah by g051051 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The increase in cost affected my service, as it caused me to get less service. The continued changes to the web site affected my service, because it made it more and more difficult to search for and find content I was interested in (regardless of whether it was DVDs or streaming. I'm not buying DVDs or Blu-rays, because it's just not that important to me to see movies. It was certainly nice to be able to enjoy the occaisional movie at home, without having to fight crowds at the theaters, but my life doesn't revolve around TV and movies (at least not anymore) so I can easily say goodbye to NetFlix and just not replace it with another service.

    If their model works for you, then by all means, keep subscribing. It doesn't work for me though, not anymore, so I'm voting with my wallet.

  16. Re:Waah waah by nedlohs · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most likely yes. The $30 million they are paying Dreamworks to stream Shrek would pay for a lot of postage (and DVDs).

  17. Re:Waah waah by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 2

    Actually, it is more expensive to stream. Not because of physical transportation/shipping costs but from the licensing costs the studios require for streaming.

    --
    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  18. Why Netflix did it in the first place by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    I think that there are probably two really good reasons Netflix saw the breakup as a good idea and neither of those has changed.

    1) Ending studio blackmail.
    Right now studios have to sell netflix DVDs at a reasonable price since they are available over the counter. But the studios don't have to sell them streaming at a reasonable price. They can tell Netflix, give us a slice of your DVD income or we wont sell you the streams you need. If you physically split the bussinesses then the blackmail goes away since they can't clawback any of that DVD income.

    2) Redbox is a better model. No postal fees. Just a driver who shuttles a stationwagon load of the disks up once a day or week. No people to tear open envelopes and sort the DVDs. Not even electricity bills. Bussinesses will even pay you to put your machines in their stores. No lost DVDs-- the consumer pays.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Why Netflix did it in the first place by Grizzley9 · · Score: 2

      Their selection, as of now, sucks. No classics, barely any foreign movies

      To you maybe, not to most, because the majority of people want to see new movies, not classics and most foreign movies are a niche market.

    2. Re:Why Netflix did it in the first place by mordenkhai · · Score: 2

      You replace TV with Netflix, and you maintain a relationship with the theater. My brother and his 4 kids have TV and replace the theater with Redbox. I myself don't use Redbox because I love going to the theater but I don't have a gaggle of children to incorporate into a theater trip. I think that's the thing about Redbox you weren't quite grasping, that for those who want the top 100 and newest titles only, it is a theater replacement, not TV replacement. I think that is how the Redbox model differs from Netflix beyond nuts and bolts, but conceptually. Just a thought.

  19. Re:Pass the bong by SteveFoerster · · Score: 2

    If you count the underemployed then you're comparing apples and oranges. The problem with the Great Depression wasn't that you might have to go work at Best Buy or at a call center or whatever, it was that there wasn't a job available at any level for five hundred miles in any direction.

    --
    Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
  20. Re:Waah waah by Sancho · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Streaming + DVD was a good deal. DVD alone for $8/mo isn't, because Redbox is $1/disc (I rarely get 8 discs a month, and when I do, a lot is just filler that I either don't end up watching or only ended up in my queue because I felt a need to get my money's worth out of the service.) Streaming is a steaming pile for $8/mo, because the selection is so terrible.

    When Netflix announced the change, I moved to Redbox. It's only a little less convenient, but there are three kiosks within walking distance and several more on the way to and from work. I already had Amazon Prime, which has a high degree of overlap with Netflix for streaming content. I am in the 4% (who left Netflix when they started charging more.)

  21. Funny SNL Netflix sketch by Faizdog · · Score: 4, Informative

    This past episode of Saturday Night Live had a REALLY FUNNY sketch skewering Netflix and how fast they seem to be changing course and announcing new plans. It was unfortunately cut for time and didn't air, but is available on NBC's website:

    http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/netflix-apology/1359563

    It was the first thing I thought of when I read the Netflix email this morning. Very funny, apt and appropriate. Almost makes me respect SNL as being on the cutting edge again.

    --
    -"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
  22. Dumpster by thomasmoreorless · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dumpster: the new service for cleaning up after a mess like Qwikster.

  23. Re:my life doesn't revolve around TV and movies by g051051 · · Score: 2

    Hah! I doubt I've seen 16 movies in the past year!

  24. 3 Pitches for Price Increase by retroworks · · Score: 2

    "We raised your prices for rentals, but, we explained it". Damn, didn't fly... hmm. Ok, try this...

    "We raised your prices for rentals, but, we called it another name and wrapped it in top management-ese explanations." Darn, still losing them!

    "We raised your prices for rentals, and now we aren't going to change the name etc., because we listened to you" That should do it... Keep fingers crossed, this may just work...

    --
    Gently reply
  25. Netflix needs to make one more change by alispguru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They should stop removing content from their streaming index. If they have to stop streaming something because a license expires, their index should change the "Play" button to "Can't Play Right Now", and pushing or hovering over the button should pop up a window saying who owns the content, how the license changed, and HOW TO CONTACT THE CONTENT OWNER to request Netflix licensing.

    Right now, as far as the customers are concerned, Netflix is the one hitting them over the head with the 2x4, and Netflix needs to make it clear to the customers that they're holding the stick, but the content owners are pulling the strings.

    --

    To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.