Netflix Kills Qwikster Before It Launches
Qwikster was not a good idea. From the moment it was announced Netflix has lost customers and gained criticism. So much so that the company has decided to abandon its plan to separate Netflix into two services and will revert back to having both its DVD rentals and online streaming services on one website.
Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, told the New York Times:
“We underestimated the appeal of the single web site and a single service. We greatly underestimated it.”
Qwikster would have separated Netflix into two independent websites. Qwickster would take care of mail-in-DVD rentals while Netflix would handle the online streaming. Customers would need to pay two separate bills and manage two separate accounts if they chose to use both services.
Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings said in a statement:
“Consumers value the simplicity Netflix has always offered and we respect that. There is a difference between moving quickly — which Netflix has done very well for years — and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case.”
When Netflix made the decision to separate the two services, Hastings said that “companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.”
A week later, Hastings admitted that Netflix may have been trying too hard to outpace the competition. Hastings said:
“It is possible we are moving too fast – it is hard to say.”
That was followed by an apology.
“I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation. It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology.”
And now Netflix is back to square one.
Netflix will still be following through with its planned price hike, but at least customers won’t have to pay two separate bills.
Have you lost faith in Netflix after the Qwikster debacle? What online streaming service do you use?
