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Netflix Hitting Cntrl Z

Posted by Burgher Jon
/ October 10, 2011 / 1 Comment

I am having a hard time processing the news this morning that Netflix is undoing their move to spin off the DVD rental business as Qwikster, explaining that they were moving too quickly.  While I agree that they may have moved too quickly to split Qwikster and Netflix, I think it is a move that they will have to make eventually; there is too much difference between the customer demographics and cost structures.  I think in general if you’re a business that moves too quickly, you should never go backwards (though taking it easy for a while at this point would have seemed prudent).  Now Netflix is going to be in the tricky position in a year or two of having to redo something they did and then undid, imagine what the feedback is going to be like on that.

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  • Anonymous

    I actually don’t think this is the wrong move.  I honestly believe that even if they have to split the two companies in the future, some things have to remain intact in order for the split to be a success.  

    First and foremost, the ratings are a huge deal.  The two companies not being able to share rating information, and therefore better recommendations actually almost made me cancel the service (both services?) not too long ago.  I was kind of relieved to see the Undo until they have their separation figured out on a more granular level.

    That’s purely from a tech perspective tho.  I realize that a lot of users are just gonna be more confused by this jumble.

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