In a few short weeks, Netflix has quickly become the most hated company in America. The onslaught of virtual tomatoes thrown at the rental company is astounding. In fact, I’d say Netflix’s approval ratings equal that of Congress’s.
The backlash against Netflix’s latest price increase was pretty silly. Was the hike handled and explained well by the company? No, but at the end of the day the service is still a steal. Think about it, you can watch as many streaming movies as you want and rent a physical DVD. I don’t think 25 dollars a month is too expensive for that.
In short: quit complaining America.
I rest my case.
Last night, under cover of darkness, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that Netflix would be splitting into two companies. There would be Netflix, which would only handle streaming. And now there is Qwikster, the sister company in charge of mailing DVDs and video games. The red envelope stays but the name changes.
This announcement was met with a lot of anger from customers. Seriously, you should see some of the comments left on Hasting’s blog. Two different sites! Two different queues! Two different usernames and passwords! How dare you, Reed?! I won’t get into my feelings regarding their outrage but I will say they were seething.
While there are some legitimate reasons to be upset, one thing is clear: Netflix is right, the future of movies is streaming. Deal with it. While these growing pains may hurt, they make sense. In ten years, no one will be mailing DVDs, they will be watching everything online. I trust that creating Qwikster will give Netflix a chance to focus only on streaming and provide us with better service while allowing DVD rentals to fade. Am I being duped? Possibly but Netflix is one of the few companies who have earned my trust. They admit when they make mistakes and their communication with customers is impressive compared to, say, Apple, Facebook or Google.
Reed Hastings
Here’s the problem: that change I spoke of – that shift to streaming only – hasn’t come yet. The technology hasn’t caught up with the vision. While Hastings is right to focus on streaming and slowly move away from mailing DVDs, he has to consider where we’re at currently. Most customers still like having that physical disc in their players. Streaming is fun but sometimes unreliable and, depending on your internet connection, not nearly as clear as a disc.
I wish Hastings said what he was really thinking: “Let’s be honest, mailing DVDs is a dying model. Here’s Qwikster for those of you who won’t embrace the inevitable. As for the rest of us, to the future! Of course we’re moving away from DVDs, we’re called Netflix for God’s sake! Net, as in on the internet! Get with it, guys!” Okay, I guess it makes sense why he wouldn’t say that but the point was clear to me: Hasting is looking ahead, he’s just not considering the present.
They say you can’t force democracy with a gun and it seems you can’t force the future on customers. Netflix is ahead of the curve with this decision. In fifteen years, we’ll look back at this split and say “Oh, Netflix and Qwikster used to be the same company? Interesting. Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to stream every show ever made.”
