Netflix abandons plans to spin off ‘Qwikster’ DVD business

By on Oct 10, 2011 at 9:44 AM
Business October 10, 2011

Netflix on Monday announced that it will abandon its plan to spin off the company’s DVD rentals-by-mail service. The home entertainment giant announced last month that it would break off its DVDs-by-mail service into a separate company called “Qwikster,” allowing it to focus on the Web-based content that represented the future of its business. “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,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote on the company’s blog. “This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.” Shares of Netflix stock jumped more than 11% in pre-market trading on the news. Netflix lost more than 30% of its market value since the company first announced its Qwikster spin-off.

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  • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

    I’m still waiting for a Netflix app that works on all of my DROID phones and not just like 2 of them. iOS has had this for 2 years, why cant DROID get it? We have the most high tech superior greatest OS ever

    • Morn

      lol sure.

      • Anonymous

        ,, awesomee ,
        my best friend’s mom makes 77$ an hour on the computer. She has been out of job for
        9 months but last month her check was 7487$ just working on the computer for a few hours. Read about it here goo.gl/syatb

    • Anonymous

      Lol your too funny I want what your having to come up with that concept , android is so buggy it’s a STD of an OS you have it and embarrassed to get treatment , IOS is smooth like butter and my phone and iPad 2 last all day no charge can android do that ???

      • Anonymous

        Hahaha you probably look like such a tool with all your little iDevices. Do you wear a wool cap in the summer and post pictures on instagram, too?

      • http://twitter.com/WillieFDiazSF William Diaz ✔

        I have too many friends that post pics on instagram and I think its the most annoying hipster-in-a-box bull Ive ever seen in my life. 
        Once in a while I download photo programs that manipulate pics and photoshop them, but I always get rid of them, because they look like everything else, like boring instagram pics.
        I am different, Android is different, I like to learn and do different things, not be told how to do it like Apple has told people how to use their phone. Unlike Apple, Google doesnt charge for the apps it makes for its own phones either. I like that.

      • Anonymous

        Not really because I buy cases and protect my belongings I make sure it’s not cracked or damage so it’s not oblivious to people that I have or own a iPhone or iPad , smart people are not tools it’s those who think they do not need any protection and it looks like it went through a section 8 area

      • Anonymous

        it’s a shame you can only see them using your 3.5″ apple mandated phone screen…

      • Anonymous

        No issues here nice visual and great battery life

    • Anonymous

      I hate feeding trolls but its now more unusual to have a device that CAN’T stream netflix than it is to have one that can.

      Nearly everything running 2.2 or higher works. Many honeycomb devices can as well. Heck, even my el-cheapo Archos 70 Tablet with the market hack works great.

      • IPwn

        That’s exactly it, android has to install apks or hacks to get things to work like they should already.. Funny

      • Anonymous

        No, it doesn’t….Netflix is in the market for anything running 2.2 or higher.

        A device that doesn’t support the android store nor is sold being able to do so can be made to work too, explain to me how thats a bad thing? 

      • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/VCBEBTYM2XLKT7WBH4OWJ5QUZ4 commonsenseplease

        If you don’t know what you’re talking about, you shouldn’t even bother posting.

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/VCBEBTYM2XLKT7WBH4OWJ5QUZ4 commonsenseplease

      All of my Android devices now have Netflix enabled….Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Incredible 2, Droid Charge and Thunderbolt.

      Doesn’t matter anyways, who watches 2 hour movies on a 3.5 inch screen (iphone users on your itty bitty screen).

      • Anonymous

        You can hook an iPhone up to a TV…

        Lol, you Android fanatics are always so concerned with size. Where’s Freud when you need him? 

    • Mister Obvious

      I love that 90% of the people here don’t get what it is that you’re doing, and think you actually *are* an android fan.

  • Bringit

    The damage is done…

  • Mutz

    Too bad Netflix, I just cancelled my account and am shipping back my last DVD. Once the streaming selection becomes more potent, maybe I will re-consider. But for now, it is time to move on.

    • Anonymous

      …and the Studios win.

  • http://twitter.com/RossRogers Ross Rogers

    So now Netflix isn’t just losing content and raising prices, it is also not trustworthy and indecisive within the management. Not a good sign for a company. 

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/VCBEBTYM2XLKT7WBH4OWJ5QUZ4 commonsenseplease

      They have the best customer service I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ricky-Cash/501200926 Ricky Cash

      A good sign for a company that realized they were about to implement a bad idea, and stopped it before hand.

  • Justin Lisenby

    Good call.

  • Scott Oldford

    It’s unfortunate that Netflix didn’t have this valuable piece of Market Research before announcing Qwickster, but at least they are now listening to their customers instead of digging in their heels.

    • Anonymous

      Listening to their customers, or reacting to a horrendous loss of their stock value? This just seems like a textbook case of a business losing it’s way by catering to Wall Street instead of Main Street – sorry to use the tired old business news phrase, but it has seldom been so very apt. Their whole MO lately just seems like they are following the advice of some equities guru who is trying to engineer some kind of high finance stock market maneuver, to such an extreme extent that they’ve lost sight of common sense.

      The old fashioned way to maximize shareholder value is to build a service that people love and are loyal to and serves the customer. But that is actually hard work and takes time. The impatient business people looking for short term shortcuts seem to have gotten their teeth into management. I don’t who should be more angry, the customers or the shareholders. Glad I’m just a customer.

  • zacamandapio

    Could they make up their mind?
    This just proves that little, medium, big and huge sized corporations are run by regular people like us.
    OHHHH.  I feel good now.

  • Travis Jenkins

    Hmm…..maybe Apple will buy Netflix for their Cloud push.

  • http://twitter.com/WillieFDiazSF William Diaz ✔

    Netflix is a brand that is well known, even in foreign countries WITHOUT it. To change half of its current demographic to a new site and brand just doesnt make sense, costs more money than customers are going to be willing to pay, and will take a long time before that new brand becomes trusted and known, if at all.

    Netflix now needs to focus on brand loyalty. Keeping the current customers happy. The ones like me who went from 8 DVDs and told all my friends about Netflix to 3 DVDs and only telling some friends about Netflix to now 1 Blu-Ray and telling no friends about the value of Netflix… Change my mind, reward me for being a customer since 2008 (3 long years without a single break). Give me a free month per year, or bump me up to 3 DVDs per month for 1 month free per year I am with you. Give me some incentive to want to stay with the high prices, to tell my friends who still use BlockBuster or go to a small mom and pop video store to get rentals.Give me a reason to feel okay and stay when Netflix does stupid things that arent deserving of my business.

    Its called “thanking the people who got you where you are”

  • SniperSniper

    They need surveys and market testing before making a rollout change like this. It is just embarrassing to keep changing your mind, you need to commit to something, and then stick with it. The CEO needs to go, or there needs to be a board, or sentry that will keep him in check, double checking his decisions, and also making sure his letters to the public are not self serving — and not damaging to the company.

    If I was a stock holder, I would demand answers, and have management change. The brand “netflix” has been tarnished forever.

    • Anonymous

      the brand isn’t tarnished forever. They just need a half assed attempt at making amends and if they do that, very few people will remember this in 6 months. There are some non-level headed people who will hold the mistakes they have made against them but I wish those people luck in finding a streaming service that has more content than netflix (even though the amount of netflix’s streaming content sucks).

  • Anonymous

    Dear Netflix, since you are in obvious need, I am offering my CEO non-experience to you for a mere 600,000/yr. I think my non-experience will help you greatly. 

    I certainly can’t make you look any more idiotic than you do now. 
    Thank you.

  • Doug

    Netflix Help Wanted:  seeking a CEO who get’s it.  Former HP CEO’s need not apply

  • Anonymous

    Sorry, but I fail to comprehend how there is so much outrage over streaming options.  While I understand the convenience, the quality is just not that good.  Streaming content is currently, at best, standard DVD quality.  Sorry, but that’s not going to cut it on my Samsung 1080p HDTV.  Call me what you want, but I prefer the best picture possible, and that means Blu-ray, period.  Unlike many in this day and age who are infatuated with instant gratification, I don’t mind waiting a day or two for a disc to show up in my mailbox.

  • guidomus maximus

    Is it just me, or is the CEO of Netflix a dumbass?

  • Anonymous

    Too expensive and they need to get new releases available quicker! Make all the movies available by streaming them instead of having a limited library.

  • Anonymous

    It’s interesting that they backtracked after the stock lost 30% of it’s value. Is it me, or do they seem to be trying things and then seeing what the stock market ‘thinks’ in order to see if it’s a good idea or not? Meanwhile just being nearly oblivious to what their customers might think.
    .
    All they really had to do was gather 20 or 30 of their customers together and ask them: would you rather have two separate accounts and websites and queues and companies to deal with, or would you rather just have one? It’s hard to believe that a single customer would have been anything but puzzled and resistant and completely against that idea. It just has to make you wonder how such a company with a rather straightforward business could be so deeply out of touch with what it is their customers would want.

  • Anonymous

    Too bad they didn’t lower their insanely high prices.  If they had, I might have come back.

    For this….No.

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